Callan, Nicholas

(b. near Dundalk, Ireland, 20 December 1799; d Maynooth, Ireland, 14 January, 1864),

electromagnetics.

Son of “Wee” Denis Callan and the former Margaret Smith, Nicholas Callan was one of the Callans of Dromiskin, a widely spread County Louth Catholic family of means. Callan had his final schooling at the Dundalk Presbyterian Academy before entering St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he was ordained priest in 1823. After postgraduate studies in Maynooth and Rome, in 1826 he was appointed professor of natural philosophy at Maynooth. Here he spent the rest of his life, a life dedicated to the formation of priests and the teaching of science. Small in stature, he was a dynamo of effort. As a young professor he was vigorous and aggressively active. As a priest he was scrupulous and zealous and became known for his “large benevolences” during the famine. Pope’s verse was adapted to describe him in his later years:

Of manners gentle, of affections mild

In wit a man: simplicity a child

With priestly virtue tempering scientific rage

He helped the poor, electrified the age.

Callan is a reminder that science lost as well as gained when it fell into the hands of the professionals. Until recently he has been a neglected figure in the history of science. He was a pioneer in the development of electromagnetism as a source of power. He built large batteries and constructed huge electromagnets, invented the induction coil in 1836, and in 1838 discovered the principle of self-excitation in dynamo-electric machines. However, as Heath cote points out: “Credit for discoveries and inventions properly due to Callan has been given to others, to Ruhmkorff for the invention in 1851 of the induction coil and to Werner Siemens for the discovery in 1866 of the principle of the self-induced dynamo” (p.145).

Callan’s inventions, especially that of the induction coil, became widely known in his lifetime and greatly influenced the growth of electricity as a power source. A contemporary wrote, in an obituary notice that appeared in the Dundalk Democrat (16 Jan. 1864): “Perhaps no man, after Faraday and Wheatstone, contributed more to the progress of electricity or deserves a higher tribute in its annals.”

It was through private means rather than assistance from the college authorities that Callan was able to conduct his researches. His students lacked elementary knowledge; and except for the talented few, they did not appreciate him. Most colleagues saw him as a furious experimenter obsessed with wires and magnets, a Baconian rather than a Cartesian, a visionary who somewhat foolishly spoke of a day when electricity would be of benefit to man by reducing human drudgery. Regarded as a “character,” an amiable eccentric, he was the subject of countless stories. Under pressure from colleagues and the need to combat rampant proselytism, this first-class scientist passed laborious years in making available in English the simple devotions of St. Alphonsus Liguori. He returned to his scientific pursuits in his declining years, when he was acclaimed by the Royal Irish Academy and, in 1857, was honored at the Dublin meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Rare extant copies of Callan’s writings, preserved in Maynooth, include Electricity and Galvanism (Dublin, 1832) and “Manuscript on Physics.” An account of the second is given by P. J. McLaughlin in “The Prelections of Nicholas Callan,” in Irish Astronomical Journal, 6 (1964), 249–252. Fairly complete lists of Callan’s scientific papers are to be found in the secondary literature.

II. Secondary Literature. The following studies do much to bring out the historical significance of Callan’s work: Niels H. de V. Heathcote, “N. J. Callan, Inventor of the Induction Coil,” in Annals of Science, 21 (1965), 145–167; and P. J. McLaughlin, “Some Irish Contemporaries of Faraday and Henry,” in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 64A (1964), 17–35; and Nicholas Callan: Priest-Scientist (London, 1965).

P. J. McLaughlin