TO

1972 ク

THE

LAFAYETTE MONTHLY.

Editors for September.-F. S. FISHER, P. C. EVANS, JOHN R. WILLIAMS.

VOL. IV.

1

SEPTEMBER, 1873.

NUMBER I.

SKETCH OF PROFESSOR COFFIN.

From Sir Richard Coffin, Knight, who accompanied William the Conquerer to England in 1066, springs the genealogical tree that bears the name of Tristram Coffin, the pioneer owner of the island of Nantucket, whose American descendants have been engaged, to a large extent, in navigation. Of these, and fifth in line of descent from Tristram, is the subject of this sketch.

Prof. JAMES HENRY COFFIN, LL.D., was born in Williamsburg, Mass., on the 6th day of September, 1806. He was, therefore, sixtysix years old at the time of his decease, which occurred February 6, 1873, at Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., where he had long filled the professorship of Mathematics and Astronomy. He graduated at Amherst College in 1828, and the year following established, at Greenfield, Mass., the Fellenberg Manual Labor Institution, which for eight years continued to be one of the rarely successful instances of this system in our country. He subsequently became the Principal of the Ogdensburg (N. Y.) Academy, and, in 1839, a member of the Faculty of Williams College. In 1846 he became Frofessor of Mathematics in Lafayette College. In the interests of this institution he labored

zealously till the close of his life, being rewarded by seeing it rise to its present high rank among our colleges.

As a teacher he was laborious and enthusiastic, and his success was remarkable. He secured the respect and love of his pupils to a degree seldom equalled; but he was also a zealous student in science, and published several valuable works as the results of his researches. Among these are his "Analytical Geometry," and his "Conic Sections," which, at one time, were extensively used as text-books in our colleges. While connected with the Fellenberg Institution, he published two works on book-keeping, that were adopted by the State schools of Massachusetts. He read many valuable papers before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of which he was, from its organization, a member; and also before the National Academy of Science, for the recent meeting of which he had in preparation an article on the Storm-curve, the object being to show that it was an hyperboloid, the equation of which he had computed.

His chief reputation, in science, was achieved by his researches in the department of meteorology. These were commenced in 1839, while Principal of the Ogdensburg (N. V.) Academy. He took simultaneous and constant observations of the barometric changes connected with the variations of the wind-vane and with the fall of rain. His instruments were self-registering. Each motion of the vane directed a minute but constant stream of dry sand into some one of 32 stationary hoppers, corresponding in position to as many points of compass. The weight of sand found in the several receptacles below each hopper showed the length of time that the vane had pointed in that direction." The rain-guage was an inverted cone, having an horizontal surface of 172.8 square inches; the rain falling into it passed down, through an orifice so small that no appreciable evaporation could occur, into a close-fitting can. One inch of rain in depth would, therefore, make

of a cubic foot when collected, the weight of which is 100 ounces. Each ounce that the can contained after a storm, consequently, represented 10 of an inch in perpendicular fall. The amount necessary to merely moisten the funnel without precipitation into the can is easily determined as a constant. The results of these observations for the year 1838 were published by Prof. Coffin in the Meteorological Register, a monthly journal, of which he issued the first number in January, 1839. It was devoted to the discussion of various phenomena connected with physical science. Though the demand for a periodical of this nature was insufficient to sustain it, it brought into correspondence

many who were interested in such subjects. The investigation of rainfall and evaporation had present practical value in being made the basis of the report of the committee of the New York Senate, in 1839-40, appointed to consider the enlargement of the canal system of the State by the construction of the Genesee Valley Canal. These studies were afterward extended to form the chapter on the climate of the State, published in the "Natural History of New York," in 1845, in which the inquiries took a wider range; and questions of vegetation, agricultural epochs, the migration of birds, etc., were introduced. A determination was also made of the amount of rise in the thermometer per hour, during the prevalence of winds from the northeast by east to south-southwest, and the unequal corresponding decrease of temperature when the winds were from the northwesterly points of compass.

While at Williams College, Prof. Coffin erected, upon the Greylock peak of Saddle Mountain, at a height of nearly 4,000 feet above the ocean, an observatory, where continuous observations were taken, even through the winter season, when for three months it was impracticable to ascend the peak. In this interval the clock work faithfully did its entire duty. The anemometer had been changed by substituting for the stream of sand a series of cards half an inch square, laid consecutively on a moving band that deposited one of them every fifteen minutes. Each card being inscribed with the day and hour it represented, when the receptacle marked "North," for example, was examined, all the cards found in it indicated the exact quarter-hour in the past three months when the wind was from that direction. In 1872 he constructed, for the observatory of the Argentine Confederation, at Cordova, a duplicate of this instrument, with improvements by John M. Junkin, M. D., similar to the one in use at Lafayette College.

The "Results of Meteorological Observations for 1854-'59," in two volumes, quarto, 1757 pages, prepared under his supervision, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, constitute a vast fund of condensed material from which to study the climate of North America.

But the great work of Prof. Coffin's life was the development of his theory of the winds, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, the following account of which has been furnished us by Prof. Henry, Secretary of the Institution:

The results of the scientific labors of Prof. Coffin include contribu