Benjamin West (March 1730 – August 26, 1813) was an American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

, and author of

almanac An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and othe ...

Life and work

Born in Rehoboth,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, Benjamin West was largely an autodidact. After a school he started in Providence,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

about 1753 proved unprofitable, he opened a dry-goods store and added what is thought to have been the first bookstore in Providence. He closed his store and made clothes for soldiers during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. Immediately after the war West opened another school in Providence and then taught at Philadelphia's new Protestant Episcopal Academy from 1787 to 1788. In 1786 he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Rhode Island College (now known as Brown University), and assumed this position in 1788. He taught mathematics and astronomy at Rhode Island College until 1799. Upon leaving Rhode Island College West moved to Newport to start a school of navigation in his home. From 1802 until his death in 1813 he was postmaster of Providence. He was apparently able to read French, as he referred often to a French text on astronomy. Benjamin West was a member of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery.

Achievements in Astronomy and Mathematics

On April 10, 1766, Benjamin West wrote

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...

, then the president of

Cambridge College Cambridge College is a private college based in Boston, Massachusetts. It also operates regional centers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Springfield, Massachusetts, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and Rancho Cucamonga, California. History Founding Cam ...

(now known as Harvard College) about a comet he had observed the night before. His ensuing communications with Winthrop brought him to the attention of other men of science. As part of a major international scientific effort, West and Joseph Brown observed the

transit of Venus frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a tr ...

on June 3, 1769, publishing ''An Account of the Observation of Venus upon the Sun the Third Day of June 1769''. The observation was conducted from a platform on the east side of Providence. The street has since been named Transit Street in honor of the event. His work on the transit was so respected that he was made an honorary member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

and received an honorary Master of Arts from

. His published observations of the 1769 transits of Venus and Mercury came to the attention of astronomers in both colonial America and England and were brought to the attention of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. He observed

Lexell's Comet D/1770 L1, popularly known as Lexell's Comet after its orbit computer Anders Johan Lexell, was a comet discovered by astronomer Charles Messier in June 1770.Other comets named after their orbit computer, rather than discoverer, are 27P/Cromme ...

in July 1770 and corresponded again with Winthrop and other astronomers. His observations contributed to the development of the theory regarding the tails of comets. In the early 1770s, West formulated

theorem In mathematics, a theorem is a statement that has been proved, or can be proved. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to establish that the theorem is a logical consequence of t ...

s for the extraction of the

roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

of odd powers. His theorems were published in the first volume of the transactions of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1781. West exchanged letters with other learned men about questions of science such as gravity, magnetism, matter, and the physical nature and properties of air. He wrote about his observations of Jupiter's satellites and constructed a new table of them from 1760 to 1810. He also calculated eclipses and other astronomical tables. He reviewed texts on mathematics and astronomy for other authors and sometimes edited them for accuracy. In addition to his tracts on astronomy and his almanacs, Benjamin West wrote about subjects such as algebra, geometry,

fluxion A fluxion is the instantaneous rate of change, or gradient, of a fluent (a time-varying quantity, or function) at a given point. Fluxions were introduced by Isaac Newton to describe his form of a time derivative (a derivative with respect to ti ...

maxima and minima In mathematical analysis, the maxima and minima (the respective plurals of maximum and minimum) of a function, known collectively as extrema (the plural of extremum), are the largest and smallest value of the function, either within a given ra ...

, and navigation. His papers included tables in which he had calculated the transits of Mercury and Venus, the places of the sun and moon, and eclipses for years beyond his lifetime.

Almanacs

West published a series of almanacs between 1763 and 1793 for New England. His first, titled ''An Almanack, for the year of our Lord Christ, 1763'' was printed by William Goddard on the first printing press in Providence. This almanac was enlarged in 1764 and published annually until 1781. He published an almanac for Halifax, Nova Scotia from 1766 to 1812, except for a few years during the American Revolution.

Honors

In 1770, West was granted honorary Master of Arts from

and Rhode Island College (known since 1804 as Brown University). The honorary Master of Arts degree from Cambridge College coincided with his observations of the transits of Venus and Mercury and Lexell's Comet. In 1772 he received an honorary degree from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

. In 1781 he was elected a fellow of the

. While teaching at Rhode Island College in 1792, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws for his distinguished services in the cause of science.

Personal life

Benjamin West was the son of John West, a farmer. His grandfather had emigrated to Massachusetts from Great Britain. When Benjamin was a boy, his family moved to Bristol, Massachusetts, where he received a few months of education from Rev. Mr. Burt. Other than these few months of formal education he was

autodidactic Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individua ...

. In 1753 he married Elizabeth Smith, a daughter of Benjamin Smith of Bristol. His parents were Baptists but as an adult West attended the Presbyterian Church with his wife. They had eight children, but only one son and three daughters survived at the time of his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Benjamin (Astronomer) American astronomers American publishers (people) Brown University faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Rehoboth, Massachusetts 1730 births 1813 deaths