The identity of the scientist in this lithograph is not currently known. The print was created by Robert Jacob Hamerton, who was a cartoonist and illustrator from County Longford, Ireland. He later moved to London, where he was employed by Charles Hullmandel, considered the father of lithographic art in England. Hamerton was an illustrator for Punch from 1842 to 1848, sometimes working under the pen name Shallaballa. Although his cartoons and book illustrations were engraved on wood, he also painted in oils and watercolor and spent most of his career as a lithographer, until 1891, "when the drawing on the huge stones became too much for my old back." He died in Stamford, Lincolnshire in 1904, aged 94.