Pliny Earle Chase (18 August 1820 in
Worcester, Massachusetts – 17 December 1886 in
Haverford, Pennsylvania) was an American
scientist,
mathematician, and
educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
who contributed to the fields of
astronomy,
electromagnetism, and
cryptography, among others.
Biography
He graduated at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1839, then taught in
Philadelphia and engaged in business for many years, but employed his leisure in physical and philological studies. In 1863 he was elected a member of the
American Antiquarian Society and the
American Philosophical Society. In 1864 the
Magellanic gold medal of the
American Philosophical Society was awarded him for his ''Numerical Relations of Gravity and Magnetism''. The results of other mathematical and physical researches were published from time to time in the ''Proceedings'' of the American Philosophical Society, and brought him a worldwide reputation as a man of unusual scientific powers and attainments. In 1871 he became a member of the faculty of
Haverford College
Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducational ...
,
Pennsylvania, and for a long time was professor of philosophy and logic. He published ''Elements of Meteorology'' (1884).
Family
His brother
Thomas Chase
Thomas Chase (died 1449) was a 15th-century judge and cleric who was Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and subsequently held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Chase was Warden of the Hospital of St Bartholomew near Rye in 1420 a ...
was a noted Latin scholar. His mother, Lydia Earle Chase, was the daughter of the famous inventor
Pliny Earle. Pliny Chase had two brothers and three sisters. His sister Lucy Chase (1822–1909) was a noted abolitionist, supporter of women's suffrage and the temperance movement, and teacher in contraband camps and freedman schools in the American South.
Chase Family Papers, c. 1787–1915
/ref> Upon his death, Pliny Chase left a widow, two sons and three daughters.
Notes
References
*
External links
Obituary in the ''Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society'', Volume 4, April 1887, pp. 316-321
''Elements of Meteorology''
1820 births
1886 deaths
Harvard University alumni
Haverford College faculty
Members of the American Antiquarian Society
19th-century American mathematicians
People from Haverford Township, Pennsylvania
Earle family
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