Actonian Prize facts for kids
The Actonian Prize was a special award created by the Royal Institution in London. It was given out every seven years to the person who wrote the best essay. This essay had to show how amazing and kind God's wisdom was, especially through a specific area of science chosen by the Royal Institution's leaders.
To enter, people would send their essays to the Royal Institution. A few months later, the winners were announced.
The prize was named after Hannah Acton. In 1838, she left £1,000 to the Royal Institution in memory of her husband, Samuel Acton, who was an architect. The money from her gift was used to fund these prizes. Today, the Actonian Prize is no longer a competition. Instead, it's given to a special lecturer invited by the Royal Institution.
Early Winners of the Actonian Prize
The very first Actonian Prize, worth one hundred guineas (an old type of British coin), was given to George Fownes in 1844. He won for his essay called Chemistry as Exemplifies the Wisdom and Beneficence of God. At that time, he taught chemistry at Middlesex Hospital.
Other people who won this important prize include:
- 1851: Thomas Wharton Jones, for his work on how our sense of vision shows God's wisdom and kindness.
- 1858: No prize was given this year. The topic was "solar radiation" (energy from the sun), but no essay was good enough. The money was saved for a future award.
- 1865: George Warington, for his essay on "radiation" and how it shows God's wisdom.
- 1872: Two prizes were given, each worth one hundred guineas. The topic was "The Theory of the Evolution of Living Things." One prize went to Rev. George Henslow, and the other to Benjamin Thompson Lowne.
- 1879: George Simonds Boulger, for his essay about the "retina" (the part of the eye that senses light) in different animals, and how it relates to evolution.
- 1886: Sir George Gabriel Stokes, who was the president of the Royal Society.
- 1893: Agnes Mary Clerke, a famous astronomer and writer.
- 1900: Sir William Huggins and Lady Huggins, for their book Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra.
- 1907: Marie Curie, a famous scientist, for her research on "radioactive substances."
- 1921: George Ellery Hale, for his work studying the sun.
- 1928: Archibald Vivian Hill, a Nobel Prize winner in physiology.
- 1935: William T. Astbury, who worked on textile physics.
- 1949: Alexander Fleming, the scientist who discovered penicillin. The prize was still 100 guineas then.
- 1977: Ralph Louis Wain.
See Also
- Actonian Prize competition announcement in the journal Nature (1871)
- Review of Lowne's essay in The Popular Science Review (1873)
