5 ms·
i think you have to go back to the 18th century for that. i'm thinking britain where science was something acceptable that gentlemen could do in their spare ti
by jgamman 10y ago
i think you have to go back to the 18th century for that. i'm thinking britain where science was something acceptable that gentlemen could do in their spare time (with smart+poor doing a lot of heavy lifting) and in particular Antoine Lavoisier in France who literally bought the rights to be a tax farmer so he could do his research. he lost his head in the revolution so there's that. YMMV.
- zeteo 10y agoWell, Lavoisier's tax farming was not passive income: "Lavoisier's researches on combustion were carried out in the midst of a very busy schedule of public and private duties, especially in connection with the Ferme Générale." [1] The gentleman scientists were also usually involved in some sort of business, even if it was just administering their estates. The people who truly had a passive income - relying on annuities or government bonds, mostly inherited - are hard to spot in the history of science. They were a pretty numerous class though [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier#Gunpowder_Commission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier#Gunpowder_Co... [2] https://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/piketty-and-the-petits-rentiers/?_r=0 https://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/piketty-and-the...
- gipp 10y agoKelvin, De Broglie, and Brahe come to mind as well.
- zeteo 10y agoKelvin taught at Glasgow, Brahe was a cathedral canon, and De Broglie did his best work for his PhD thesis.