Thomas Young

Thomas Young 1773 - 1829
Scientist and polymath who was described as 'the last man who knew everything.' He was interested in vision, light, solid mechanics, light, energy, physiology, language, musical harmony and Egyptology. Not just that, he advanced them forward significantly. He was instrumental in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, specifically the Rosetta Stone.

By the age of 2, he knew how to read fluently.
By 6 he had read the bible, Gulliver's travels, Robinson Crusoe, poetry and a book explaining “the Newtonian System of Philosophy, Adapted to the Capacities of Young Gentlemen and Ladies.”
Long after he died, scientists started to understand his work: For example, the physicist Hermann von Helmholtz couldn't figure out how the eye sees color, only to discover that Young had figured it out long ago.
He discovered how the eye changes focus and details about how it perceives color. He explained why soap bubbles are irredescent.
He figured out a new way to tune keyboard instruments.
He invented a universal alphabet to represent all sounds that the human voice can produce.
He proved that light is a wave.
He always took notes on what he read (often in the language of the author - latin, greek, french or italian)
Hsi research on vision involved experimenting on his own eyes - he inserted two ends of a compass into his eye to measure the size of his eye
He worked relentlessly and patiently
because of sceptism towards 'jack of all trades' approach, he made most of his contributions anonymously.