Thomas Young does something that isn't Physics in Worthing

Thomas Young is someone who ought to be a household name. I know him as the man who proved that light is a wave by demonstrating diffraction and interference effects. He also worked on the properties of solid materials, giving his name to the Young Modulus, a measure of how difficult a material is to stretch. But I didn't know that he also played a part in translating the Rosetta Stone. Apparently he figured out that the hieroglyphics representing translations of non-Egyptian names were phonetic. Hence the sounds of the hieroglyphs could be worked out. A recent biography described him as "the last man who knew everything". They were exciting times when it was possible to do world class work in many fields.