James Ivory

Background

James Ivory was born on February 17, 1765, in Dundee, Scotland. His father was a watchmaker, also named James Ivory, who was an apprentice in London and there married Jane Brown on January 27, 1761. She must have died soon after the birth (although no records have come to light) since the father married Margaret Cook on September 16, 1768. Ivory then was brought up by his father and step-mother who together had three sons and two daughters.

Education

Ivory was educated at the universities of St. Andrews (1779-1785) and Edinburgh (1785-1786). After taking the Master of Arts degree in 1783 he studied theology, with a view to entering the Church of Scotland. His studies in divinity were not pursued further.

Career

Immediately on leaving the university Ivory was appointed teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy in Dundee Academy. After three years he became the manager of a flaxspinning company in Forfarshire (now Angus). In 1804 the company was dissolved, and Ivory took up a mathematical professorship at the Royal Military College at Great Marlow (subsequently at Sandhurst). He held this office until 1819, when ill health compelled an early retirement. During the remainder of his life Ivory lived in London, devoting himself entirely to mathematical investigations, the results of which he made available in a long series of articles published in scientific journals. Sixteen of his papers were printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

Ivory’s interests lay mainly in the application of mathematics to physical problems, and his principal contributions may be summarized under six categories.

The first one was the attraction of homogeneous ellipsoids upon points situated within or outside them. His paper “On the Attractions of Homogeneous Ellipsoids,” containing the well-known theorem which bears his name, in which the attraction of an ellipsoid upon a point exterior to it is made to depend upon the attraction of another ellipsoid upon a point interior to it, was printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1809. Although Laplace had already reduced this problem to a similar form, Ivory’s solution was regarded as simpler and more elegant.

The second one was his critical commentaries on the methods used by Laplace in the third book of the Mécanique céleste for computing the attraction of spheroids differing little from spheres and the substitution of analytical methods for some of Laplace’s geometrical considerations (1812, 1822). Although some of Ivory’s criticisms seem to have been unjustified, Laplace himself paid tribute to Ivory’s work.

Ivory was also interested in the investigation of the orbits of comets (1814), atmospheric refraction (1823, 1838), and the equilibrium of fluid bodies (1824, 1831, 1834, 1839).

The last one was the equilibrium of a homogeneous ellipsoid with three unequal axes rotating about one of its axes, based on a theorem of Jacobi and Liouville (1838).

Achievements

• James Ivory went down in history as a prominent mathematician and professor. His scientific reputation, for which he was awarded the Copley Medal in 1814 and the Royal Medal in 1826 and 1839, and also named a Knight of the Order of the Guelphs, Civil Division (1831), was founded on the ability to understand and comment on the work of the French analysts rather than on any great originality of his own. At a time when few in England were capable of understanding the work of Laplace, Ivory not only grasped its significance but also showed himself capable, in many cases, of substituting a clearer and more direct process for the original. Ivory’s work, conducted with great industry over a long period, helped to foster in England a new interest in the application of analysis to physical problems.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Catalogue of Scientific Papers (1800-1863), Volume 3

    (The book contains ninety papers published by Ivory.)

    1867

Religion

Ivory was affiliated with the Church of Scotland.

Views

Ivory was an early supporter of the work of the French analysts, especially Lagrange and Laplace.

Membership

Ivory was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1815.

Personality

Ivory, because of his mental problems, tended to quarrel with his fellow mathematicians.

Physical Characteristics: In 1817 Ivory suffered a serious nervous breakdown.

Connections

Ivory never married.

Father:

James Ivory

Mother:

Jane Brown

step-mother:

Margaret Cook

Step-brother:

Holmes Ivory

Step-brother:

Thomas Ivory

Step-brother:

William Ivory

step-sister:

Margaret Ivory

step-sister:

Catherine Ivory

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 7
  1973
• Dundee Celebrities of the Nineteenth Century
  1878