Issue 35 autumn 2022 - Flipbook - Page 68
Celebrating the life
of the craftsman
professor who
transformed
science teaching
Above, Patrick Copland by by John Moir
Thursday (November 10) marks 200 years since the death
of an inspiring professor who became one of Aberdeen’s
most popular teachers and transformed science learning
in the city.
In addition to his ‘day job’, Copland was a pioneer of
science evening classes for local artisans. The course he
ran was so popular that it attracted more than 60 life-long
learners to each session and ran for 27 years straight.
Patrick Copland was born in 1748 in a small parish to the
north-west of Aberdeen and educated locally before being
accepted at the age of 14 to study at Marischal College.
Copland also equipped the city’s Castlehill observatory
with modern instruments and made it into a semi-public
space for learning.
But his lively teaching style earned him an interesting
reputation in the city and beyond. A private letter to
another of the Marischal College professors suggests that
Copland acquired or cultivated the image of a bit of a
magician as it stated: “The thunder and lightning are in
general attributed to the Hocus Pocus tricks, which Professor Copland has lately been playing at the observatory
and elsewhere.... The mob are greatly incensed against
him, the very women would surely attack him in the
streets, were it not for a small vial of Electrical matter,
which he is said to carry about in his Breeches pocket”.
After graduating he became a professor of natural philosophy and built a reputation as an educator and scientist
in the region and beyond, conversing with some of the
best-known names in science.
He promoted the teaching of science by demonstration
and opened up scientific education to working adults in
Aberdeen.
On the bicentenary of his death, The University of
Aberdeen is hosting an event to showcase his fascinating
life and to enable members of the public to take a handson look at the incredible demonstration equipment he
created.
Copland also advised the town on obtaining improved
fresh water supplies; gave advice on standards of length,
weight, and volume measure; made the earliest measurements of the height of the Deeside hills by barometric
means and is credited with introducing the process of
bleaching by chlorine to the UK.
Copland taught in a time where the experiments of
Newton and others were discussed at universities, but
teaching with practical demonstrations was not ubiquitous as it is in schools today. Many universities, including
Marischal College, lacked comprehensive collections of
demonstration apparatus.
Sam Revell from the University of Aberdeen’s Special
Collections team will deliver the talk on Copland’s life.
He said: “Patrick Copland was an inspirational and
well-loved teacher in his day, and an excellent craftsman
and demonstrator of scientific principles. He was soon forgotten however and much of his collection lost. We look
forward to demonstrating some of the incredible equipment he created – which is remarkably still in working
order!”
In just a few years he had repaired all of the old machines
at Marischal and executed several new ones. Teaching by
demonstration soon became Copland’s trademark. One
former Marischal College student Edward Ellice, who
became Secretary of State for War in the 1830s, described
Copland as "The man who more fully opened the eyes of
the student to this world than any teacher he had ever
met".
The bookable talk on Copland’s life will run from 12.301pm on Thursday November 10 at the University of Aberdeen’s Science Teaching Hub on the corner of Bedford
Road and St Machar Drive.
The incredible machines he produced with his assistant
John King were said to be indistinguishable from those of
the best instrument makers of the time and Marischal’s
collection was described as ‘the most complete and
extensive’ in the UK.
This will be followed by a drop-in demonstration of some
examples of Copland’s equipment by Museum & Special
Collections staff from 1pm to 4pm.
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Conservation & Heritage Journal
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