Adam Anderson (physicist)


Adam Anderson AM LLD was a Scottish physicist and encyclopedist. He was the rector of the Perth Academy from 1811 to 1839, and Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy 1839 to 1846 at St Andrews University.
Anderson designed and supervised the water supply system in Perth, and supervised the construction of the royal burgh's gasworks.
He contributed original papers on the measurement of the heights of mountains by the barometer, the hygrometric state of the atmosphere, the dew point, and the illuminating power of coal gas, to Nicholson's Journal, vol. xxx. 1812, to Thomson's Annals of Philosophy, vol. ix. 1817, and to the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vols. ii, iv, xi, xii, xiii, &c. The Perth gasworks were originally constructed under his superintendence, and he introduced many improvements leading to the economical production of gas. He wrote the articles "Barometer", "Cold", "Dyeing", "Fermentation", "Evaporation", "Hygrometry", "Navigation", and "Physical Geography" in Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia, and the article "Gaslight" in the Encyclopædia Britannica.
He died on 5 December 1846 and is buried in the south-east section of Greyfriars Cemetery in Perth.