Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/276

 PEIRCE

PEIRCE

Peirce (q.v.). Professor Peirce's mind reverted later to questions of cosmical physics, con- nected with his earlier astronomical work, and revived by the writings of Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). He presented to the American Academj' of Arts and Sciences a series of notes on these questions during the years 1877-79; and a semi-popular account of his speculations on the matter is contained in his Ideality in the Physi- cal Sciences, (Lowell Institute lectures 1879). He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; a member of the American Pliilosophical society; a founder of the National Academy of Sciences; an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society of London, and a foreign honorary fellow of the Royal societies of London, Edinburgh, and Gottingen. The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by the University of North Carolina in 1847, and by Harvard in 1867. He was an honorary fellow of the Univer- sity of St. Vladimir, at Kief, Russia. In associa- tion with Professor Josepli Lovering, he issued in 1843 five numbers of the Cambridge Miscellany of Mathematics and Physics; and is the author of: An Elementary Treatise on Plane and Spherical Trigonometry (1835-3G), afterward extended to include Navigation, Surveying and Spherical As- tronomy; An Elementary Treatise on Sound (1836); All Elementary Treatise on Plane and Solid Geo?nefrt/( 1837), printed forthe blind (1840); An Elementary Treatise on Algebra (1837); An Elementary Treatise on Curves, Functions, and Forces {2 vols. 1841-46): Tables of the Moon (1853), for the American Ephemeris; A System of Analy- tic Mechanics (1855-57); Linear Associative Alge- bra (lithographed in 1870, printed in 1881, in the American Journal of Mathematics, and in a sepa- rate volume); Ideality in the Physical Sciences (1881). His name in "Class H, Scientists," re- ceived fourteen votes for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. New York univer- sity, October, 1900. He died in Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 6, 1880.

PEIRCE, Benjamin Osgood, physicist, was born in Beverly, Mass., Feb. 11, 1854; son of Benjamin Osgood and Mehetable Osgood (Sec- comb) Peirce; grandson of Benjamin and Re- becca (Orne) Peirce, and of Ebenezer and Mary (Marston) Seccomb of Salem; great-grandson of Benjamin of Ciiarlestown and Salem, killed at the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775, and of Mary (Waite) Peirce; greats-grandson of Jerah- mael Peirce of Charlestown, and a descendant of John Pers, Watertown, Mass., 1637. He was graduated from Harvard in 1876, and was an as- sistant in the physical laboratory, 1876-77. He studied in Berlin and Leipzig, Germany, 1878-79, receiving the degrees A.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig in 1879, and was a teacher

in the Boston Latin school, 1880-81. He was in- structor in matliematics at Harvard, 1881-84, as- sistant professor of mathematics and physics, 1884-88, and was elected Hollis professor of math- ematics and natural i>hilosophy in 1888. He was married, July 27, 1882, to Isabella TurnbuU Landreth of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of: Tlieory of the Neiotonian Potential Function (1886); Table of Integrals (1899), and many scientific papers on physics and mathematics.

PEIRCE, Bradford Kinney, author, was born in Royalston, "Windsor county, Vt., Feb. 3, 1819; son of the Rev. Thomas and Huppy Peirce. He was graduated from Wesleyan university. Conn., in 1841; joined the New England Conference of the IMethodist Episcopal church in 1843; was stationed at Waltham, Mass., 1843-44, and at Newburyport, Mass., 1844-45, where he was editor of the Sunday School Messenger; at Charlestown, Mass., 1846-47, and located in Boston, Mass., as agent of the American Sunday School union, 1847-56. He was married, Aug. 5, 1841, to Har- riet W. Thompson of Middletown, Conn. He was a state senator, 1855-56; was appointed trustee of the Massachusetts Industrial School for Girls in 1856, and was superintendent and chap- lain of the institution, 1856-62. He was a trustee of Wesleyan university, 1871-82, and secretary of the board of trustees, 1871-74. He joined the New England conference at Watertown, Mass., in 1862; was chaplain of the House of Refuge, Randall's Island, N.Y., 1863-72; editor of Zion's Herald, 1872-88, and superintendent of Newton free library, 1888-89. The honorary degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Wesleyan uni- versity in 1868. He is the author of: Temptation (1840); The Eniinent Dead (18i6); Bible Scholars' Mamial (1847); ^'otes of the Acts (1848); Bible Questions (3 vols., 1848); Life in the TT'oorfs .• Ad- ventures of Audubon (1863); Hymns and Ritual for the House of Refuge (1864); Trials of an In- ventor: Life and Discoveries of Charles Goodyear (1866); Stories from Life which the Chajilain Told (1866); Seq^iel of Stories from Life (1867); A Half Century xoith Juvenile Offenders (1869); Chaplain with the Children (1870); The Young Shetlander and His Home {\870); Hymns of the Higher Life (1871), and a new annotated edition of the Proceedings of the 3Iassachusetts State Con- vention of 17SS (1856). He died at Newton, Mass., April 19, 1889.

PEIRCE, Charles Sanders, scientist, was born in Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 10, 1839; .son of Ben- jamin and Sarah Hunt (Mills) Peirce, and grand- son of Benjamin Peirce, historian of Harvard col- lege, and of Elijah Hunt Mills, U.S. senator from Massachusetts. He was graduated from Harvard,