Thomas Craig (1855–1900) was an American mathematician. He was a professor at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
and a proponent of the methods of
differential geometry.
Biography
Thomas Craig was born December 20, 1855, in
Pittston, Pennsylvania
Pittston is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The city gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an active anthracite coal ...
. His father Alexander Craig immigrated from
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
, and worked as an
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...
in the mining industry.
Thomas Craig first studied
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
at
Lafayette College
Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...
in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, where a teacher William J. Bruce was a
mentor
Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...
to him. Thomas took his C.E. degree in 1875. He taught
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
in
Newton, New Jersey
Newton, officially the ''Town of Newton'', is an incorporated municipality located in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is situated approximately by road northwest of New York City. As the location of the county's administrat ...
while continuing to study
mathematics. He entered into correspondence with
Benjamin Peirce
Benjamin Peirce (; April 4, 1809 – October 6, 1880) was an American mathematician who taught at Harvard University for approximately 50 years. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, statistics, number theory, algebra, and the philoso ...
and
Peter Guthrie Tait
Peter Guthrie Tait FRSE (28 April 1831 – 4 July 1901) was a Scottish mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'', which he co-wrote wi ...
.
Thomas Craig was one of the prime movers of
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
when it was launched by
Daniel Coit Gilman
Daniel Coit Gilman (; July 6, 1831 – October 13, 1908) was an American educator and academic. Gilman was instrumental in founding the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College, and subsequently served as the second president of the University ...
in 1876. Craig and
George Bruce Halsted
George Bruce Halsted (November 25, 1853 – March 16, 1922), usually cited as G. B. Halsted, was an American mathematician who explored foundations of geometry and introduced non-Euclidean geometry into the United States through his own work and ...
were the first Hopkins Fellows in mathematics.
James Joseph Sylvester had been invited to lead a graduate program in
mathematics but would only be doing that. Craig was needed to teach
differential calculus and
integral calculus
In mathematics, an integral assigns numbers to Function (mathematics), functions in a way that describes Displacement (geometry), displacement, area, volume, and other concepts that arise by combining infinitesimal data. The process of finding ...
. The first year there were only fifteen students studying mathematics, but by 1883 there were 35.
In 1878 Craig took his Ph.D. degree with a dissertation ''The Representation of One Surface Upon Another, and Some Points in the theory of the Curvature of Surfaces''. He became an instructor at Johns Hopkins that year, but also took up work at the
U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. In that capacity he produced the text for ''A Treatise on Projections'' for workers at the Geodetic Survey. Craig and
Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a Canadian–American astronomer, applied mathematician, and autodidactic polymath. He served as Professor of Mathematics in the United States Navy and at Johns Hopkins University. Born in N ...
read
Leo Königsberger
Leo Königsberger (15 October 1837 – 15 December 1921) was a German mathematician, and historian of science. He is best known for his three-volume biography of Hermann von Helmholtz, which remains the standard reference on the subject.
In 20 ...
's ''Theory of Functions'' also.
Thomas married Louise Alford, daughter of General
Benjamin Alvord, on May 4, 1880. The couple raised two daughters, Alisa and Ethel.
After 1881 Craig was totally committed to Johns Hopkins, particularly anticipating
Arthur Cayley's lectures on
theta function
In mathematics, theta functions are special functions of several complex variables. They show up in many topics, including Abelian varieties, moduli spaces, quadratic forms, and solitons. As Grassmann algebras, they appear in quantum field ...
s when he came over for the Spring semester of 1882. Besides the calculus courses, Craig taught
differential equation
In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...
s,
elliptic functions,
elasticity,
partial differential equations,
calculus of variations,
definite integrals,
mechanics
Mechanics (from Ancient Greek: μηχανική, ''mēkhanikḗ'', "of machines") is the area of mathematics and physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among physical objects. Forces applied to object ...
,
dynamics,
hydrodynamics,
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' b ...
,
spherical harmonic
In mathematics and physical science, spherical harmonics are special functions defined on the surface of a sphere. They are often employed in solving partial differential equations in many scientific fields.
Since the spherical harmonics form ...
s, and
Bessel function
Bessel functions, first defined by the mathematician Daniel Bernoulli and then generalized by Friedrich Bessel, are canonical solutions of Bessel's differential equation
x^2 \frac + x \frac + \left(x^2 - \alpha^2 \right)y = 0
for an arbitrar ...
s.
When the
American Journal of Mathematics
The ''American Journal of Mathematics'' is a bimonthly mathematics journal published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
History
The ''American Journal of Mathematics'' is the oldest continuously published mathematical journal in the United S ...
was launched in 1877 Craig was tasked with recording expenses, as these were underwritten by Johns Hopkins University. His report at the end of 1882 gave the total just under ten thousand dollars.
Thomas Craig died May 8, 1900. With information supplied by
Luther P. Eisenhart,
Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a Canadian–American astronomer, applied mathematician, and autodidactic polymath. He served as Professor of Mathematics in the United States Navy and at Johns Hopkins University. Born in N ...
wrote the notice in the ''American Journal of Mathematics''
Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a Canadian–American astronomer, applied mathematician, and autodidactic polymath. He served as Professor of Mathematics in the United States Navy and at Johns Hopkins University. Born in N ...
(1900
Thomas Craig
obituary in American Journal of Mathematics
The ''American Journal of Mathematics'' is a bimonthly mathematics journal published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
History
The ''American Journal of Mathematics'' is the oldest continuously published mathematical journal in the United S ...
from Jstor early materials
Works
Thomas Craig wrote the following contributions to the ''American Journal of Mathematics'':
* 1880: AJM 3:114 to 27: Orthomorphic projections of an ellipsoid on a sphere
* 1881: AJM 4: 297 to 320: On certain metric properties of surfaces
* 1881: AJM 4:358 to 78: The counter-pedal surface of an ellipsoid
* 1882: AJM 5:62 to 75: Some elliptic function formula
* 1882: AJM 5:76 to 8: Note on the counter-pedal surface of an ellipsoid
* 1882:
Crelle's Journal 93:251 to 70: On the parallel surface to an ellipsoid
* 1883: Crelle's 94:162 to 70: Note on parallel surfaces
* 1879
Wave and Vortex Motion D. Van Nostrand Publishing, from
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
* 1882
A Treatise on Projectionsfrom
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
Historical Math Collection
* 1889
A Treatise on Linear Differential Equations John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, ...
, from Historical Math Monographs at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
Notes and references
*
Karen Parshall
Karen Hunger Parshall (born 1955, Virginia; ''née'' Karen Virginia Hunger) is an American historian of mathematics. She is the Commonwealth Professor of History and Mathematics at the University of Virginia with a joint appointment in the Corco ...
&
David E. Rowe (1994) ''The Emergence of the American Mathematical Research Community'', Chapter 2: "J.J. Sylvester and Johns Hopkins", .
* F.P. Matz (1901
Professor Thomas Craig American Mathematical Monthly 8:183 to 7, from
Jstor early content.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Thomas
19th-century American mathematicians
1855 births
1900 deaths