John Michell famous for being the first person to give a
description of an object we have come to recognise as a
black hole, was born in 1724. During his time at the
university of
Cambridge he taught
arithmetic,
geometry,
theology,
Greek,
Hebrew, and
philosophy, even though he was actually a
professor of
geology.
He left Cambridge in 1767 to become the
rector of a
village called Thornhill, where he remained until his death in 1793. He was well known in the scientific circles of the time, and in fact
designed the equipment
Henry Cavendish later used to
estimate the
mass of the
earth. Unfortunately Michell died before the
experiment was performed, and it became known as 'Cavendish's Experiment'