Joseph Black was a Scottish physicist and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was Professor of Anatomy and Chemistry at the University of Glasgow for 10 years from 1756, and then Professor of Medicine and Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh from 1766, teaching and lecturing there for more than 30 years.
Portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn in 1790
Joseph Black plaque by James Tassie, Hunterian Museum, Glasgow
A precision analytical balance
The world's first ice-calorimeter, used in the winter of 1782–83, by Antoine Lavoisier and Pierre-Simon Laplace, to determine the heat evolved in various chemical changes, calculations which were based on Joseph Black's prior discovery of latent heat.
The University of Glasgow is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in 1451 [O.S. 1450], it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Along with the universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, the university was part of the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century. Glasgow is the largest university in Scotland by total enrolment and with over 19,500 postgraduates the second-largest in the United Kingdom by postgraduate enrolment.
University of Glasgow, Older Building Sign
A model of the old High Street Building, in the Hunterian Museum
The University of Glasgow in 1650
The new buildings of the University of Glasgow at Gilmorehill, circa 1895.
