Archibald Smith of Jordanhill (10 August 1813, in Greenhead,

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...

– 26 December 1872, in London) was a Scots-born barrister and amateur mathematician.

Early life and education

He was the only son of James Smith

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1782-1867), a wealthy merchant and antiquary and owner of the Jordanhill estate in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

,George Stewart
'Archibald Smith'
in ''Curiosities of Glasgow Citizenship'', 1881, p. 238 and his wife Mary Wilson, granddaughter of Alexander Wilson, professor of astronomy in

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

(and brother of

Patrick Wilson Patrick Joseph Wilson (born July 3, 1973) is an American actor and director. He began his career in 1995, starring in Broadway musicals. He received nominations for two Tony Awards for his roles in ''The Full Monty'' (2000–2001) and ''Oklahoma ...

). He was educated at the Redland School near Bristol from 1826 to 1828. Archibald studied law at Glasgow University from 1828, and then at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he was

Senior Wrangler The Senior Frog Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain." Specifically, it is the person who a ...

, said to be the first Scot to achieve this position, and first Smith's prizeman in 1836, elected a fellow of Trinity College. He was one of the founders of the '' Cambridge Mathematical Journal''. He graduated BA in 1836 and MA in 1839.

Career as lawyer

He entered

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, and was called to the bar as a barrister in 1841. He then practised as an equity draughtsman and property lawyer in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Career as scientist

His scientific work was mainly in the field of applications of

magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...

and the

Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magnetic f ...

. He obtained practical formulae for the correction of magnetic compass observations made on board ship, which General Sir

Edward Sabine Sir Edward Sabine ( ; 14 October 1788 – 26 June 1883) was an Irish astronomer, geophysicist, ornithologist, explorer, soldier and the 30th president of the Royal Society. He led the effort to establish a system of magnetic observatories in ...

published in the '' Transactions'' of the Royal Society: Smith later made convenient tables. In 1859 he edited

William Scoresby William Scoresby (5 October 178921 March 1857) was an English whaler, Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman. Early years Scoresby was born in the village of Cropton near Pickering south-west of Whitby in Yorkshire. His father, William ...

's ''Journal of a Voyage to Australia for Magnetical Research'' and gave an exact formula for the effect of the iron of a ship on the compass. In 1862, in conjunction with the hydrographer Sir Frederick John Owen Evans FRS (1815-1885), then superintendent of the compass department of the navy, he published an ''Admiralty Manual for ascertaining and applying the Deviations of the Compass caused by the Iron in a Ship''. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

in 1837 his proposer being

James David Forbes James David Forbes (1809–1868) was a Scottish physicist and glaciologist who worked extensively on the conduction of heat and seismology. Forbes was a resident of Edinburgh for most of his life, educated at its University and a professor ...

. Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in June 1856, he was awarded its

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...

in 1865 "for his papers in the Philosophical Transactions and elsewhere, on the magnetism of ships". In 1866 Emperor

Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Poland and Gra ...

presented him with a gold compass, set in diamonds, and emblazoned with the Imperial Arms. He died in London on 26 December 1872.

Personal life

In 1853, Smith married Susan Emma Parker, daughter of Sir James Parker of Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, and Mary Babington. They had six sons and two daughters: *

James Parker Smith The Right Hon. James Parker Smith of Jordanhill MP FRSE (1854–1929) was a Scottish barrister and politician who served as Liberal Unionist MP for Partick. He was first elected at a by-election in 1890, but lost the seat in 1906. He was a Camb ...

(1854–1929) M.P. for

Partick Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

*Rev. Walter Edward Smith (1855–1940), vicar at Andover *Lt. Com. Charles Stewart Smith (1859–1934)], Royal Navy officer, British Diplomat * Arthur Smith (curator), Arthur Hamilton Smith (1860–1941), museum curator and archaeologist *Sir

Henry Babington Smith Sir Henry Babington-Smith (29 January 1863 – 29 September 1923) was a senior British civil servant, who served in a wide range of posts overseas, mostly financial, before becoming a director of the Bank of England. He was related to the Babi ...

(1863–1923), prominent civil servant and banker *Mary Susan Smith (1865–1915) *Margaret Smith (1867–1904) *Brig. Gen. George Edward Smith (1868–1944)

Notes

References

* * Obituary notice by "W.T." (

Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy (Glasgow), Professor of Natural Philoso ...

), Proceedings of the Royal Society 22 (1873-1874) pp. 1-xxiv (the first known occurrence of the phrase ''

harmonic analysis Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with the representation of Function (mathematics), functions or signals as the Superposition principle, superposition of basic waves, and the study of and generalization of the notions of Fo ...

'' is on p.v

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Archibald 1813 births 1872 deaths Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge 19th-century British mathematicians Scottish mathematicians Members of Lincoln's Inn Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society Royal Medal winners Senior Wranglers