engineering

John Charles Melliss

John Charles Melliss is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Charles Melliss rather than just read about it. In short: John Charles Melliss (23 January 1835 – 23 August 1910) was a British engineer and amateur naturalist. He lived in St.

Key takeaways

John Charles Melliss belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Charles Melliss to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Charles Melliss from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Charles Melliss (23 January 1835 – 23 August 1910) was a British engineer and amateur naturalist. He lived in St. Helena and wrote a book on the geology, history and geography of the island in 1875. He also wrote on the natural history of the island. J.D. Hooker named the genus Mellissia in his honour.

Biography

Melliss was born on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. His father, Captain W. J. Melliss, was an officer of the St Helena Artillery. After training as an engineer at King's College, and serving as an officer in the Royal Engineers, he was appointed successor to his father as Commissioner and Surveyor Engineer of St. Helena from 1860 to 1871. In 1870 he planned a tunnel through Mundens Hill connecting James Valley with Ruperts Valley but this never happened. In 1871, because of government cutbacks, he was made redundant and returned to London, where he subsequently formed the firm of J.C. Melliss and Co. He worked on the drainage of the Lower Thames Valley and the Coventry and Leyton sewage works. In 1875, he published the book for which he is best known: St. Helena: A Physical, Historical and Topographical Description of the Island, Including the Geology, Fauna, Flora and Meteorology. It was illustrated by his wife, Alice Elizabeth Louisa Melliss, née Stace, who was credited on the title page as "Mrs. J. C. Melliss", and on plates as "A. Melliss".

To commemorate the book's centenary in 1975, the St. Helena Post Office published a set of four stamps, using illustrations from the book.Melliss inspired Thomas Vernon Wollaston, a noted beetle specialist, to visit St Helena with his wife Edith in 1875-76. Wollaston studied the beetles in Coleoptera Sanctæ-Helenæ (1875) while his wife wrote an account of the moths of the island. Melliss died at his Hampstead home on 23rd August 1910.

Recognition Joseph Dalton Hooker named the monotypic plant genus Mellissia in his honour for the plant Mellissia begoniifolia, the St Helena Boxwood. It was subsequently subsumed into the genus Withania. The Silver Eel (Ariosoma mellissii), also known as the Melliss's Conger, was named for him by Albert Gunther.

Family The Melliss's son, Hugh John Melliss, born in 1880 joined his father's company (later named Melliss and Partners following a partnership with H.R. Smart). He worked for the company until 1955.

Authority abbreviation

References

External links

St. Helena: A Physical, Historical and Topographical Description of the Island, Including the Geology, Fauna, Flora and Meteorology by Melliss, through the Biodiversity Heritage Library

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Charles Melliss

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Charles Melliss claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Charles Melliss before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Charles Melliss ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Charles Melliss

In research: John Charles Melliss appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Charles Melliss in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Charles Melliss is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1835 births, 1911 deaths, 19th-century British naturalists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Charles Melliss outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Charles Melliss in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Charles Melliss means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Charles Melliss out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Charles Melliss in simple terms?

John Charles Melliss (23 January 1835 – 23 August 1910) was a British engineer and amateur naturalist. He lived in St.

Why does John Charles Melliss matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Charles Melliss?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Charles Melliss.