Biography of Charles Stanhope (1753-1816)

The British statesman and versatile scientist Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope and Viscount Mahon, was born in London on August 3, 1753, as the second son in the noble and rich family of Philip Stanhope—2nd Earl of Stanhope, a British peer and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Stanhope was sent very young to Eton College in Windsor, but at the age of ten was removed from it and leaved with his family to Geneva, Switzerland. The family continued at Geneva for ten years, where young Charles was educated under the inspection of the prominent swiss scientist Georges-Louis Le Sage (1724-1803).

At age of 20, still in Geneva, Stanhope was already proven as a promising scientist and good athlete. He returned in England in 1774, and in 1880 he became a member of the House of Commons, upon the death of his father in 1786, when he took his place as a Peer of the realm.

Lord Stanhope was a very strange peer—a man with enormous mental energies and earnestness, who devoted a large part of his time and income not to pleasures and parties, but to experiments to science and philosophy. According to the memories of his contemporaries, he was a tall and thin man, who looked pale, but had a very powerful mind and voice and used to wave his arms around a lot when he was explaining things.

In 1774 Stanhope married Lady Hester Pitt (1755-1780), a sister of the english prime-minister William Pitt the Younger and two years later was born their first child—a daughter, who will become the famous traveler Lady Hester Stanhope. Stanhope had two other daughters from this marriage, before the early death of Countess Stanhope in July, 1780. In 1781 he married Louisa (1758–1829), the daughter and sole heiress of the British diplomat and politician Henry Grenville. Louisa was the mother of three sons, first of them—Philip Henry Stanhope (1781–1855) inherited not only the title Earl Stanhope, but also many of the scientific tastes of his famous father.

Lord Stanhope was most known by his contemporaries as a politician, but his reputation with posterity depends more upon his talent as a philosopher, scientist and inventor. Politically he was revolutionary, opposed the slave trade, as well as the war against France, which earned for him the nickname Citizen Stanhope, and was a supporter of education and electoral and fiscal reforms. His lean and awkward figure was extensively caricatured by his contemporaries.

In 1772 Stanhope was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He wrote a very interesting treatise of electricity. The Lord devoted much attention on the means of preserving buildings from fire. Another object, which took a considerable share of Stanhope's attention was the employment of steam for propulsion of vessels, for such experiments he expended very large sums. He shared his knowledge with the inventor of the first commercially successful steamboat—Robert Fulton (1765-1815).

Stanhope devoted a large part of his time to the calculating machines. He invented three calculating machines (see calculating machines of Stanhope). His Lordship also conceived the possibility of designing a reasoning machine, and created two logical devices, so called demonstrators (see the photo below), which can be used to draw the correct conclusions from logical propositions.

The logical machines of Stanhope (square and circular demonstrators)

Stanhope is well known for suggestion of improvement in the construction of the printing press and as an early patron of the stereotype method of printing. He created a printing press with original construction (see the photo below), which will become very popular all over the world in the next century.

The printing press of Stanhope

Stanhope invented also an optical lens, which bear his name, and a method for tuning musical instruments.

Lord Charles Stanhope died in Chevening, Kent, on December 15, 1816.