EPHRAIM

See also:

• CHAMBERS (the Fr. chambre, from Lat. camera, a room)
• EPHRAIM CHAMBERS (d. 1740)
• CHAMBERS, GEORGE (1803-1840)
• CHAMBERS, ROBERT (18oz-1871)
• CHAMBERS, SIR WILLIAM (1726-1796)

CHAMBERS (d. 1740)  , English encyclopaedist, was born at Kendal, Westmorland, in the latter part of the 17th century . He was apprenticed to a globe-maker in London, but having conceived the plan of his Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, he devoted himself entirely to it . The first edition appeared by subscription in 1728, in two vols. fol., and dedicated to the king (see ENCYCLOPAEDIA) . The Encyclopedie of Diderot and d'Alembert owed its inception to a French translation of Chambers's work . In addition to the Cyclopaedia, Chambers wrote for the Literary Magazine (1735-1736), and translated the History and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris (1742), and the Practice of Perspective from the French of Jean Dubreuil . He died on the 15th of May 1740 .