A Budget of Paradoxes Volume II Part 49

[227] See Vol. I, page 326, note 2 {701}.

[228] Apparently unknown to biographers.

[229] The _Bibliotheca Mathematica_ of Ludwig Adolph Sohncke (1807-1853), professor of mathematics at Konigsberg and Halle, covered the period from 1830 to 1854, being completed by W. Engelmann. It appeared in 1854.

[230] See Vol. I, page 392, note 2 {805}.

[231] See Vol. I, page 43, note 7 {32}.

[232] See Vol. II, page 91, note 187.

[233] Mason made a notable balloon trip from London to Weilburg, in the Duchy of Na.s.sau, in November, 1836, covering 500 miles in 18 hours. He published an account of this trip in 1837, and a work ent.i.tled _Aeronautica_ in 1838.

[234] William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1885) the novelist.

[235] On this question see Vol. I, page 326, note 2 {701}.

[236] Major General Alfred Wilks Drayson, author of various works on geology, astronomy, military surveying, and adventure.

[237] Hailes also wrote several other paradoxes on astronomy and circle squaring during the period 1843-1872.

[238] See Vol. I, page 43, note 8 {33}.

[239] See Vol. I, page 43, note 7 {32}.

[240] "Very small errors are not to be condemned."

[241] He seems to have written nothing else.

[242] Besides the paradoxes here mentioned by De Morgan he wrote several other works, including the following: _Abriss der Babylonisch-a.s.syrischen Geschichte_ (Mannheim, 1854), _A Popular Inquiry into the Moon's rotation on her axis_ (London, 1856), _Practical Tables for the reduction of the Mahometan dates to the Christian kalendar_ (London, 1856), _Grundzuge einer neuen Weltlehre_ (Munich, 1860), and _On the historical Antiquity of the People of Egypt_ (London, 1863).

[243] Dircks (1806-1873) was a civil engineer of prominence, and a member of the British a.s.sociation and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He wrote (1863) on "Pepper's Ghost," an ingenious optical illusion invented by him.

There was a second edition of the _Perpetuum Mobile_ in 1870.

[244] George Stephenson (1781-1848), the inventor of the first successful steam locomotive. His first engine was tried in 1814.

[245] Robert Stephenson (1803-1859), the only son of George. Most of the early improvements in locomotive manufacture were due to him. He was also well known for his construction of great bridges.

[246] "In its proper place."

[247] "A fool always finds a bigger fool to admire him."

[248] See Vol. I, page 43, note 7 {32}.

[249] See Vol. I, page 43, note 8 {33}.

[250] See Vol. I, page 85, note 2 {129}.

[251] See Vol. I, page 390, note 1 {390}.

[252] From 1823 to 1852 it was edited by I. C. Robertson; from 1852 to 1857 by R. A. Brooman; and from 1857 to 1863 by Brooman and E. J. Reed.

[253] Sir James Ivory (1765-1842) was, as a young man, manager of a flax mill in Scotland. In 1804 he was made professor of mathematics at the Royal Military College, then at Marlow and later at Sandhurst. He was deeply interested in mathematical physics, and there is a theorem on the attraction of ellipsoids that bears his name. He was awarded three medals of the Royal Society, and was knighted together with Herschel and Brewster, in 1831.

[254] See Vol. I, page 56, note 1 {64}.

[255] See Vol. I, page 153, note 5 {338}.

[256] See Vol. I, page 309, note 2 {670}.

[257] See Vol. I, page 87, note 4 {133}.

[258] George Canning (1770-1857), the Tory statesman and friend of Scott, was much interested in founding the _Quarterly Review_ (1808) and was a contributor to its pages.

[259] See Vol. I, page 186, note 14 {418}.

[260] See Vol. II, page 141, note 252.

[261] De Morgan had a number of excellent articles in this publication.

[262] See Vol. I, page 279, note 1 {611}.

[263] James Orchard Halliwell (1820-1889), afterwards Halliwell-Phillips, came into prominence as a writer at an early age. When he was seventeen he wrote a series of lives of mathematicians for the _Parthenon_. His _Rara Mathematica_ appeared when he was but nineteen. He was a great bibliophile and an enthusiastic student of Shakespeare.

[264] This was written at the age of twenty-two.

[265] The subject of this criticism is of long past date, and as it has only been introduced by the author as an instance of faulty editorship, I have omitted the name of the writer of the libel, and a few lines of further detail.--S. E. De M.

[266] "Condemned souls."

[267] The editor of the _Mechanics' Magazine_ died soon after the above was written.--S. E. De M.

[268] Thomas Stephens Davies (1795-1851) was mathematical master at Woolwich and F. R. S. He contributed a series of "Geometrical Notes" to the _Mechanics' Magazine_ and edited the _Mathematician_. He also published a number of text-books.

[269] See Vol. II, page 66, note 143.

[270] The _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_ (1849), edited by Sir William Smith (1813-1893), whose other dictionaries on cla.s.sical and biblical matters are well known.

[271] "O J. S.! This is the worst! the greatest possible injury!"

[272] See Vol. I, page 44, note 9 {34} and page 110, note 5 {201}.

[273]

"If there's a man whom the judge's pitiless sentence awaiteth, His head condemned to penalties and tribulations, Let neither penitentiaries tire him with laborer's burdens Nor let his stiffened hands be harra.s.sed by work in the mines.

He must square the circle! For what else do I care?--all Known punishments this one task hath surely included."

[274] Houlston was in the customs service. He also published _Inklings of Areal Autometry_, London, 1874.