Life
1799-1864, b. Dundalk, Co. Louth; ed. under William Neilson, at the Dundalk
Academy, and Seminary; entered Maynooth 1816; ord. 1823; DD, Rome, 1826;
appt. Maynooth Prof. of Natural Philosophy; encouraged to investigate
magnetism by his predecessor, Cornelius Denvir (later Bishop of Down and
Connor); followed in footsteps of Galvani and Volta (whom he met in Rome);
invented the Induction Coil, thus providing a basis for cheap energy in
industry; constructed a giant battery of 577 piles at Maynooth, using
iron-zinc, later manufactured by E. M. Clarke of the Strand, London; made
an independent discovery of Ohm’s law; issued 20 religious tracts
and was influential in the conversion of of Henry Newman; published in Sturgeon’s Annals of Electricity, and Philosophical Magazine;
his reputation secured in a paper by J. D. Gallivan to the Dublin British
Association meeting of 1957 (rep. in Nature); his 1837 induction
coil is preserved at Maynooth, where a prominent lecture theatre is dedicated
to him. DIB
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Criticism
Charles Mollan & John Upton, The Scientific Apparatus of Nicholas
Callan (1799-1864) and Other Historic Scientific Instruments
(Co. Kildare: Maynooth 1994). See also a definitive paper by Rev M. T.
Casey, in IEE Proceedings, Dec. 1985 (cited in Roy Johnston, ‘Godless
Colleges and Non-Persons’, Causeway, 1, Autumn 1993, pp.36-38).
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Commentary
Dr. William Reville, ‘Spark of Genius’, column on Nicholas
Joseph Callan; b. Darver, Co. Louth, son of well-to-do farmers; ed. Dundalk
Acad.; entered Maynootnh, 1816; studied Physics in third yr. under Cornelius
Denvir; ord. 1823; doctorate from Sapienza Un., Rome, 1826; acquainted
with work of Galzani and Volta; chair of Physic after Denvir, 1826; invented
induction coil following discovery of electro-magnetic induction by Farraday
in 1831 and the invention of the electromagnet by William Sturgeon in
1825, which innovations Callan combined; generated 60,000 volts by interrupting
the current between coils; once connected 577 batteries and lifted 2 tons;
William Walsh, later archb. of Dublin, rendered unconscious by an experimental
shock; discovered self-exciting dynamo, 1838; constructed electric motors;
on visiting Birr to see the telescope he was not admitted; on the earl
of Rosse’s coming to Maynooth to view the coil, Callan suggested
he return to Birr and view it through his telescope; the induction coil
invention erroneously attrib. to Heinrich Ruhkorff (1803-1877); his authorship
established by P. J. McLaughlin in 1936 and officially acknowledged in
1953; d. Maynooth, 1854; Maynooth museum holds effects from his laboratory.
(See The Irish Times [Weekend], 21 Feb. 2002.)
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