Editing Erasmus Darwin (section)

== Other activities ==
In 1761, Darwin was elected a fellow of the [[Royal Society]].<ref name="Hassler, 1961">{{cite book |last1=Hassler |first1=Donald M. |title=Erasmus Darwin |date=1963 |page=164 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IqpPAQAAIAAJ |access-date=18 November 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

In addition to the Lunar Society, Erasmus Darwin belonged to the influential [[Derby Philosophical Society]], as did his brother-in-law Samuel Fox (see family tree below). He experimented with the use of air and gases to alleviate infections and cancers in patients. A Pneumatic Institution was established at [[Clifton, Bristol|Clifton]] in 1799 for clinically testing these ideas. He conducted research into the formation of clouds, on which he published in 1788. He also inspired Robert Weldon's [[Somerset Coal Canal]] [[caisson lock]].

In 1792, Darwin was elected as a member to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in [[Philadelphia]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1792&year-max=1792&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-05|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

[[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] specifically mentions Darwin in the first sentence of the 1818 Preface to ''[[Frankenstein]]'' to support his contention that the creation of life is possible. His wife [[Mary Shelley]] in her introduction to the 1831 edition of ''[[Frankenstein]]'' wrote that she overheard her husband talk about Darwin's experiments with [[Lord Byron]] about unspecified "experiments of Dr. Darwin" that led to the idea for the novel.<ref>Shelley, Mary. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42324/42324-h/42324-h.htm "Introduction" ''Frankenstein'' (1831 edition)] Gutenberg<br />"Many and long were the conversations between Lord Byron and Shelley, to which I was a devout but nearly silent listener. ... They talked of the experiments of Dr. Darwin, (<u>I speak not of what the Doctor really did</u>, or said that he did, but, as more to my purpose, of what was then spoken of as having been done by him,) who preserved a piece of vermicelli in a glass case, till by some extraordinary means it began to move with voluntary motion." She confused ''vermicelli'', pasta, for the actual word Darwin and Shelley used, which was ''vorticella'', a miniscule [sic] wheel animal. This was a major mistake or flub. As she admitted, everything she knew about science she got from her husband Shelley. [underlining added]</ref>

=== Cosmological speculation ===
Contemporary literature dates the cosmological theories of the [[Big Bang]] and [[Big Crunch]] to the 19th and 20th centuries. However, Erasmus Darwin had speculated on these sorts of events in ''The Botanic Garden, A Poem in Two Parts: Part 1, The Economy of Vegetation, 1791'':<ref>{{cite book |title=A Thousand and One Gems of English Poetry |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201899 |editor-first=Charles |editor-last=Mackay |date=1896 |location=London |publisher=Routledge |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201899/page/n171/mode/2up 160] }}</ref>

{{poemquote|Roll on, ye Stars! exult in youthful prime,
Mark with bright curves the printless steps of Time;
Near and more near your beamy cars approach,
And lessening orbs on lessening orbs encroach; —
Flowers of the sky! ye too to age must yield,
Frail as your silken sisters of the field.
Star after star from Heaven's high arch shall rush,
Suns sink on suns, and systems, systems crush,
Headlong, extinct, to one dark centre fall,
And death and night and chaos mingle all:
— Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm,
Immortal Nature lifts her changeful form,
Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame,
And soars and shines, another and the same! }}

=== Inventions ===
Darwin was the inventor of several devices, though he did not patent any: he believed this would damage his reputation as a doctor. He encouraged his friends to patent their own modifications of his designs.{{sfn|Smith|2005}}
* A horizontal [[windmill]], which he designed for [[Josiah Wedgwood]] (who would be Charles Darwin's other grandfather, see family tree below).
* A [[carriage]] that would not tip over (1766).
* A steering mechanism for his [[carriage]], known today as the [[Ackermann steering geometry|Ackermann linkage]], that would be adopted by cars 130 years later (1759).{{sfn|Smith|2005}}
* A speaking machine, which was a mechanical larynx made of wood, silk, and leather and pronounced several sounds so well 'as to deceive all who heard it unseen' (at [[Clifton, Bristol|Clifton]] in 1799).<ref name="EDH">{{cite web |url=http://www.erasmusdarwin.org/2013/01/project-update-the-speaking-machine/ |title=Project Update: The Speaking Machine |date=9 January 2013 |website=Erasmus Darwin House |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324115010/http://www.erasmusdarwin.org/2013/01/project-update-the-speaking-machine/ |archive-date=24 March 2015 |url-status=bot: unknown |access-date=23 February 2015 }}</ref>
* A [[boat lift|canal lift]] for barges.
* A minute artificial bird.{{sfn|Smith|2005}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.euromanticism.org/erasmus-darwins-artificial-bird/|title = Erasmus Darwin's Artificial Bird – European Romanticisms in Association| date=6 December 2019 }}</ref>
* A [[copying]] machine (1778).
* A variety of weather monitoring machines.

=== Rocket engine ===
In notes dating to 1779, Darwin made a sketch of a simple hydrogen-oxygen [[rocket engine]], with gas tanks connected by plumbing and pumps to an elongated combustion chamber and expansion nozzle, a concept not to be seen again until one century later.<ref>[https://www.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk/rocket-motor-p-82/ Rocket motor. P.82. (photograph of 1779 sketch)] ''revolutionaryplayers.org.uk'', accessed 14 November 2018</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=oFEgCLEqOmkC J.G.Crowther, New Scientist 12 Dec 1963 p.690 Book Reviews including Desmond King-Hele: 'Erasmus Darwin, 1731–1802'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230507232324/https://books.google.com/books?id=oFEgCLEqOmkC |date=7 May 2023 }} ''books.google.com'', accessed 14 November 2018</ref>