1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Anderson, John
ANDERSON, JOHN (1726–1796), Scottish natural philosopher, was born at Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, in 1726. In 1756 he became professor of oriental languages in the university of Glasgow, where he had finished his education; and in 1760 he was appointed to the more congenial post of professor of natural philosophy. He devoted himself particularly to the application of science to industry, instituting courses of lectures intended especially for artisans, and he bequeathed his property for the foundation of an institution for the furtherance of technical and scientific education in Glasgow, Anderson’s College, now merged in the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. He died in Glasgow on the 13th of January 1796. His Institutes of Physics, published in 1786, went through five editions in ten years.