Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/50

 His last and farewell public ascent took place from Vauxhall Gardens on Monday, 13 Sept. 1852. In 1840 he had propounded his ideas about crossing the Atlantic in a balloon, and six years later made a proposal for carrying out such an undertaking.

Many of his, ascents were made alone, as when he went up from Boston in June 1846, and again in July when he made a night ascent from Vauxhall. During his career he had many dangerous experiences. In 1823, when ascending from Cheltenham, accompanied by Mr. Griffiths, some malicious person partly severed the ropes which attached the car to the balloon, so that in starting the car broke away from the balloon, and its occupants had to take refuge on the hoop of the balloon, in which position they had a perilous journey and a most dangerous descent, when they were both injured. This is the only case on record of such a balloon voyage. In 1827 Green made his sixty-ninth ascent, from Newbury in Berkshire, accompanied by H. Simmons of Reading, a deaf and dumb gentleman, when a violent thunderstorm threatened the safety of the balloon. On 17 Aug. 1841, on going up from Cremorne with Mr. Macdonnell, a jerk of the grappling iron upset the car and went near to throwing out the aeronaut and his companion, Green was the first to demonstrate, in 1821, that coal-gas was applicable to the inflation of balloons. Before his time pure hydrogen gas was used, a substance very expensive, the generation of which was so slow that two days were required to fill a large balloon, and then the gas was excessively volatile. He was also the inventor of 'the guide-rope,' a rope trailing from the car, which could be lowered or raised by means of a windlass and used to regulate the ascent and descent of the balloon. After living in retirement for many years he died suddenly of heart disease at his residence, Ariel Villa, 51 Tuffnell Park, Holloway, London, 26 March 1870.

He married Martha Morrell, who died at North Hill, Highgate, London. His son, George Green, who had made eighty-three ascents with the Nassau balloon, died at Belgrave Villa, Holloway, London, on 10 Feb. 1864, aged 57.



GREEN, ELIZA S. CRAVEN (1803–1866), poetess, née Craven, was born at Leeds in 1803. Her early years were spent in the Isle of Man. Subsequently she lived at Manchester, but she returned to Leeds, where she resided many years. Her first book was 'A Legend of Mona, a Tale, in two Cantos,' Douglas, 1825, 8vo, and her second and last, 'Sea Weeds and Heath Flowers, or Memories of Mona,' Douglas, 1858, 8vo. she was a frequent contributor of poetry and prose sketches to the periodical press. She wrote for the 'Phœnix,' 1828, and the 'Falcon,' 1831, both Manchester magazines; for the 'Oddfellows' Magazine,' 1841 and later; for the 'Leeds Intelligencer, 'Le Follet,' 'Hogg's Instructor,' and 'Chambers's Journal,' and contributed to a volume of poems entitled 'The Festive Wreath,' published at Manchester in 1842. A few years before her death she received a gift from the queen's privy purse. She died at Leeds on 11 March 1866.



GREEN, GEORGE (1793–1841), mathematician, was born at Sneinton, near Nottingham, in 1793. His father was a miller with private means. While a very young child he showed great talent for figures. In 1828 his ‘Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism’ was published by subscription at Nottingham. In this essay he first introduced the term ‘potential’ to denote the result obtained by adding the masses of all the particles of a system, each divided by its distance from a given point; and the properties of this function are first considered and applied to the theories of magnetism and electricity. This was followed by two papers communicated by Sir Edward Ffrench Bromhead to the Cambridge Philosophical Society: (1) ‘On the Laws of the Equilibrium of Fluids analogous to the Electric Fluid’ (12 Nov. 1832); (2) ‘On the Determination of the Attractions of Ellipsoids of Variable Densities’ (6 May 1833). Both papers display great analytical power, but are rather curious than practically interesting.

In October 1833 he entered Caius College, Cambridge, as a pensioner. At the following Easter he was head of the freshman's mathematical list, and was elected a scholar. In 1835 he was again first in mathematics, and finally took his degree as fourth wrangler in January 1837, the second being Professor Sylvester.