James Coffin

September 6, 1806 (age 66)

Williamsburg, Massachusetts, United States

In 1829 Coffin opened at Greenfield, Massachusetts, a select school for boys and the next spring added to it a manual labor department for which he rented some 200 acres of land and hired a farmer-superintendent. This was the beginning of the Fellenberg Manual Labor Institution. The results were excellent in every particular save in respect to his own remuneration. This was so meager that in 1837 he accepted the headship of an academy in Ogdensburg, New York, which he retained until August 10, 1839. From 1840 to 1843 he was a tutor in Williams College. Here he installed on the peak of Mt. Greylock an apparatus for automatically recording the direction and velocity of the wind, and continued his meteorological studies begun in 1838 at Ogdensburg. In October 1843, he became principal of the academy at South Norwalk, Connecticut, where he remained until October 16, 1846, when he moved to Lafayette College to take the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy, where he remained for the rest of his life. In that year he became a collaborator in the work of the Smithsonian Institution, which published the two works: Winds of the Northern Hemisphere (1853); and Winds of the Globe (1875). The second of these studies, a large quarto volume involving years of work, was by far the most exhaustive collection and the fullest analysis of wind data that had been made, and its main conclusions are good for all time.

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Key: Containing Answers To The Questions, And Correct Entries Of The Transactions, In The Progressive Exercises In Book-keeping...

( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

Elements of Conic Sections and Analytical Geometry

(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

Winds of the northern hemisphere

(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852 Excerpt: ... will modify these motions. As the heated air at the equator rises, and attempts to flow northerly toward the pole, it crosses successive parallels of latitude, whose easterly motion, by virtue of the earth's diurnal revolution, is continually diminishing. But the air, retaining the easterly motion which it had at the equator, and consequently moving more rapidly in that direction than the places over which it passes, has a relative motion, as from the west, which, combined with its northerly motion, carries it toward the north-east, and finally toward the east. On the same principles, the lower current must continually veer more and more toward the west, as it approaches the equator. When we reflect that it is over 6,000 miles from the equator to the pole, while one-half of the entire atmosphere lies within seven miles of the surface of the 1 See Appendix. earth, we see that it must be quite impossible for the upper and lower currents to flow in opposite directions, one upon the other, for so great a distance, without intermingling. Each must communicate to the other its own motion by friction, and it will be only near the northern and southern extremities of the vortex, that they will be kept distinct, and each have its own proper motion. In other words, there must be a system of equatorial winds at the south, a system of polar ones at the north, and a system of blended ones between. Let us notice the necessary characteristics of each system separately. The lower current of the equatorial system proceeding southerly, and at the same time veering toward the west, constitutes the trade-winds, and it is probable that at the limit where the upper current becomes blended with the lower, no inconsiderable part of it folds under itself, and returns toward the eq...

... Tables, Meteorological and Physical

(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

Psychrometrical table: for determining the elastic force of aqueous vapor and the relative humidity

(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

Progressive exercises in book keeping; by single and double entry ...

(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1836 Excerpt: ...it is necessary that he should have two sets of books; one for his private accounts, and the other for those of the Company. Johnson did not understand this, but kept both mingled together in complete confusion. It will be your business in this Lesson carefully to separate them, entering those which relate to Johnson's private affairs only, in his private books,--those which relate to the Company only in the Company books--and those that relate to both in both places. For example, when Johnson furnished $3000 as capital for the Company, the Company became indebted to him for that sum; consequently in the Company's books Johnson should be credited $3000, and in Johnson's private books the Company should be charged that sum. Again when (Dec. 9) goods were taken from the Company's store to pay Johnson's private debt, Johnson should be charged in the Company's books, and he should credit the Company in his private books, at the same time charging Dodge for the amount. In the Model I have entered these transactions in full. It will facilitate the final settlement between the partners to open two accounts in the Company's books, with each partner: one being called his stock account, showing the amount of capital furnished, and the other his private account, showing the amount which he owes the Company or the Company him. The reason for keeping the two accounts separate is obvious; for the Private accounts are to be settled in the same manner as with other customers, while the manner of settling the Stock accounts depends on the gains or losses of the Company. EXERCISES. Nov. 1, 1839. I have this day entered into partnership with Peter Griswold. Each of us is to furnish $3000 as capital. The gainsor losses are to be equally divided. For my share of the capital I h...

James Henry Coffin Edit Profile

mathematician meteorologist

Background

James Henry Coffin was born on September 06, 1806 in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, United States. He was the third child of Matthew and Betsy (Allen) Coffin, both of Martha’s Vineyard, and sixth in descent from Tristram Coffyn who came from England in 1642. Matthew Coffin died in 1820 and the family, being destitute, soon was scattered among relatives.

Education

James, who during his earlier years had been feeble and sickly, had now become strong enough to work on a farm, which he did at times, though he planned soon to enter the trade of musical-instrument and cabinetmaker. In September 1821, while visiting his uncle, the Reverend Moses Hallock of Plainfield, Massachusetts, his cousin, William Hallock, persuaded him to come and live with them and get an education. He entered Amherst College in September 1823, but an attack of the measles during the first session injured his eyes for several years and prevented his graduation until August 27, 1828. During this period he supported himself mainly by tutoring at college and by teaching during vacations.

Career

In 1829 Coffin opened at Greenfield, Massachusetts, a select school for boys and the next spring added to it a manual labor department for which he rented some 200 acres of land and hired a farmer-superintendent. This was the beginning of the Fellenberg Manual Labor Institution. The results were excellent in every particular save in respect to his own remuneration. This was so meager that in 1837 he accepted the headship of an academy in Ogdensburg, New York, which he retained until August 10, 1839.

From 1840 to 1843 he was a tutor in Williams College. Here he installed on the peak of Mt. Greylock an apparatus for automatically recording the direction and velocity of the wind, and continued his meteorological studies begun in 1838 at Ogdensburg. In October 1843, he became principal of the academy at South Norwalk, Connecticut, where he remained until October 16, 1846, when he moved to Lafayette College to take the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy, where he remained for the rest of his life.

In that year he became a collaborator in the work of the Smithsonian Institution, which published the two works: Winds of the Northern Hemisphere (1853); and Winds of the Globe (1875). The second of these studies, a large quarto volume involving years of work, was by far the most exhaustive collection and the fullest analysis of wind data that had been made, and its main conclusions are good for all time.

Achievements

Coffin was a highly respected and successful teacher, and always, as from childhood, exceptionally pious. He was instrumental in the founding the Fellenberg Manual Labor Institution, probably the first of its kind in the United States. His scientific reputation chiefly rested on his works Winds of the Northern Hemisphere (1853); and Winds of the Globe (1875).