Peirce

Peirce, BENJAMIN, mathematician, was born at Salem, Massachusetts, 4th April 1809, and studied at Harvard, where in 1833 he became professor. In 1849 he became consulting astronomer to the American Nautical Almanac; and from 1867 to 1874 he was superintendent of the Coast Survey. In 1836-46 he issued an admirable series of mathematical text-books, and he contributed to various mathematical journals. His paper on the discovery of Neptune (1848) attracted universal attention; and his papers on the constitution of Saturn's rings (1851-55) were equally remarkable. His great Treatise on Analytic Mechanics appeared in 1857; and he left his mark on various departments of mathematical and astronomical investigation. He died at Cambridge, 6th October 1880.