1685-1732. British poet and dramatist. He was
the friend of Alexander Pope and John
Arbuthnot, and wrote Trivia 1716, a verse
picture of 18th-century London. His The
Beggar's Opera 1728, a `Newgate pastoral'
using traditional songs and telling of the
love of Polly for highwayman Captain
Macheath, was an extraordinarily popular
success. Its satiric political touches led to
the banning of Polly, a sequel.

Gay-Lussac
Joseph Louis 1778-1850. French physicist and 
chemist, who investigated the physical 
properties of gases, and discovered new 
methods of producing sulphuric and oxalic 
acids. In 1802 he discovered the approximate 
rule for the expansion of gases now known as 
Charles's Law; see also gas laws.