Robert Plot
Robert Plot (
Borden, Kent,
England,
1640 December 13 â€" Borden,
1696 April 30), was a
British naturalist, first Professor of
Chemistry at
Oxford University and the first keeper of the
Ashmolean Museum.
He is known for looking for natural curiosities in several English counties, writing
Natural History of Oxfordshire in which he described the fossilized femur of a giant (now known to be from the
dinosaur Megalosaurus) and
Natural History of Staffordshire, in which he describes a double sunset.
In 1677 he became a fellow of the
Royal Society due to his exhibit of minerals, and in 1682 became the society's Secretary and joint editor of the
Philosophical Transactions. In the field of chemistry he searched for a universal solvent that could be obtained from wine spirits, and believed alchemy was necessary for medicine. After 1686 Robert Plot focused more on archaeology, but misinterpreted
Roman remains as
Saxon. He stressed the unusual, studied echoes to learn about air, mineral waters, and recognised types of earth in layers, but believed
fossil shellfish were coincidental mineral crystallisations, and that some spring water must originate from the sea flowing through underground channels.
*
*
Robert Plot 1640â€"96 â€" scientist & antiquary from the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
