births
December 11, 1781
David Brewster, Scottish physicist, mathematician, and astronomer (died 1868)
David Brewster
Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics, mostly concerned with the study of the polarization of light and including the discovery of Brewster's angle. He studied the birefringence of crystals under compression and discovered photoelasticity, thereby creating the field of optical mineralogy. For this work, William Whewell dubbed him the "father of modern experimental optics" and "the Johannes Kepler of optics."