Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

STIRLING, JAMES (1692-1770)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 924 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

STIRLING, See also:JAMES (1692-1770) , Scottish mathematician, third son of See also:Archibald Stirling of See also:Garden, and See also:grandson of See also:Sir Archibald Stirling of Keir (See also:Lord Garden, a lord of session), was See also:born at Garden, See also:Stirlingshire, in 1692. At eighteen years of See also:age he went to See also:Oxford, where, chiefly through the See also:influence of the See also:earl of See also:Mar, he was nominated (1711) one of See also:Bishop See also:Warner's exhibitioners at Balliol. In 1715 he was expelled on See also:account of his See also:correspondence with members of the Keir and Garden families, who were noted See also:Jacobites, and had been See also:accessory to the " Gathering of the Brig o' Turk " in 1708. From Oxford he made his way to See also:Venice, where he occupied himself as a See also:professor of See also:mathematics. In 1717 appeared his Lineae tertii ordinis Newtonianae, sive . . . (8vo, Oxford). While in Venice, also, he communicated, through Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton, to the Royal Society a See also:paper entitled " Methodus differentialis Newtoniana illustrata" (Phil. Trans., 1718). Fearing assassination on account of having discovered a See also:trade See also:secret of the See also:glass-makers of Venice, he returned with Newton's help to See also:London about the See also:year 1725. In London he remained for ten years, being most See also:part of the See also:time connected with an See also:academy in See also:Tower See also:Street, and devoting his leisure to mathematics and correspondence with eminent mathematicians. In 1730 his most important See also:work was published, the Methodus differentialis, sive traclatus de summa-/lone el interpolatione serierum infinitarum (4to, London), which, it must be noted, is something more than an expansion of the paper of 1718.

In 1735 he communicated to the Royal Society a paper " On the Figure of the See also:

Earth, and on the Variation of the Force of Gravity at its See also:Surface." In the same year he was appointed manager for the Scots See also:Mining See also:Company at Ieadhills. We are thus prepared to find that his next paper to the Royal Society was concerned, not with pure, but with applied See also:science—" Description of a See also:Machine to See also:blow See also:Fire by the Fall of See also:Water " (Phil. Trans. 1745). His name is also connected with another See also:practical undertaking, since grown to vast dimensions. The accounts of the See also:city of See also:Glasgow for 1752 show that the very first See also:instalment of ten millions See also:sterling spent in making Glasgow a seaport, viz. a sum of £28, 4s. 4d., was for a See also:silver See also:tea-See also:kettle to be presented to " James Stirling, mathematician, for his service, pains, and trouble in See also:surveying the See also:river towards deepening it by locks." Stirling died in See also:Edinburgh on the 5th of See also:December 1770. See W. See also:Fraser, The Stirlings of Keir, and their See also:Family Papers, (Edinburgh, 1858) ; " See also:Modern See also:History of See also:Leadhills," in See also:Gentleman's See also:Magazine (See also:June, 18B3); See also:Brewster, See also:Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton, ii. 300, 307, 411, 516; J. See also:Nicol, Vital See also:Statistics of Glasgow (1881-1885), p. 70; Glasgow See also:Herald (Aug.

5, 1886). Another edition of the Lineae tertii ordinis was published in See also:

Paris in 1797; another edition of the Methodus differentialis in London in 1764; and a See also:translation of the latter into See also:English by See also:Halliday in London in 1749. A considerable collection of See also:literary remains, consisting of papers, letters and two See also:manuscript volumes of a See also:treatise on weights and See also:measures, are still preserved at Garden.

End of Article: STIRLING, JAMES (1692-1770)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
STIRLING 		[next]
STIRLING, JAMES HUTCHISON (182o-1909)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries