The Nuttall Encyclopedia

1. Bacon, Roger

   a Franciscan monk, born at Ilchester, Somerset; a fearless truth-seeker of great scientific attainments; accused of magic, convicted and condemned to imprisonment, from which he was released only to die; suggested several scientific inventions, such as the telescope, the air-pump, the diving-bell, the camera obscura, and gunpowder, and wrote some eighty treatises (1214-1294).