Background
Daniel Vaughan was born at Glenomara, near Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland. He was one of several children of John Vaughan (or Vaughn).
Astronomer mathematician physiologist scientist
Daniel Vaughan was born at Glenomara, near Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland. He was one of several children of John Vaughan (or Vaughn).
Vaughan was first taught by a private tutor and later attended Killaloe Classical Academy, under the care of his uncle Daniel, a priest. It was intended that he should study for the priesthood, but in 1840 he set out for the United States, where he looked for greater freedom in pursuit of studies involving the higher mathematics. He traveled in Virginia and other southern states, and in 1842 was engaged as tutor by a Colonel Stamp in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
Soon a neighborhood school was arranged where the classics, physical geography, astronomy, geology, and advanced mathematics were taught. Stamp's large library was a great attraction to Vaughan, who later walked to Cincinnati, one hundred miles and back again, to obtain the newest scientific books. His own library, gathered from 1842 on, contained the works of Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Laplace, Humboldt, and other European scientists.
He had decided linguistic ability, and, after tutoring for two or three years, he accepted the chair of Greek in a college at Bardstown, Kentucky, which gave him more time for his strictly scientific studies.
In 1850, Vaughan removed to Cincinnati. There he lectured on chemistry at the Eclectic Medical Institute, and published an article on "Chemical Researches in Animal and Vegetable Physiology" in the Eclectic Medical Journal. For a number of years, he was much in demand as a lecturer on astronomy and other scientific subjects before teachers' institutes, schools, academies, and colleges in the surrounding region. He became a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1851, and prepared for it an article on "Chemical Action of Feeble Currents of Electricity" and one on "Solar Light". His work in experimental physiology later brought him a fellowship in the Association.
In 1852, after seven months' study of the problem of the rings of Saturn, he wrote a paper on "The Stability of Satellites Revolving in Small Orbits"; in discussing the disintegration of any near satellites by the tremendous tidal action of Saturn he anticipated by many years the demonstration made by J. E. Keeler of the nature of the rings of Saturn. In 1854, he published The Destiny of the Solar System, lectures delivered in Cincinnati, and wrote on "Researches in Meteoric Astronomy". Six other papers, which led to much correspondence with European scientists, were published in the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine between May 1858 and December 1861. In 1858, appeared Popular Physical Astronomy, a collection of his lectures, which reveals the high quality of his astronomical researches.
From 1860 to 1872, he held the chair of chemistry at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, reading a notable valedictory address at the time of his resignation. After this, for a time, he continued to lecture in Kentucky. When he returned to Cincinnati, his meager income gave his friends anxiety, for he would not ask help. His writing brought him very little, and his lectures became less frequent. At last, he disappeared and was forgotten. In April 1879, he was found prostrated by pulmonary hemorrhages and near death from starvation in a wretched tenement room. On April 6, after receiving the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church, he died.
a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Vaughan was tall, slender, and fine-featured, and wore a long chin beard. Timid and never self-assertive, he was very gentle and patient in his scientific explanations. His room at the medical college was his laboratory, study, and living-room. A constant reader, he was a familiar figure at the public library on Vine Street, where he quietly sat and read, often with his woolen shawl about him.
Since his death, he has been almost forgotten, yet, without connection with observatories or astronomers, without a telescope, so far as is known, he grasped many of the profoundest problems of physical astronomy and through sheer mathematical genius was able to offer remarkably brilliant solutions.
Vaughan was never married.
