细节
SILLIMAN, Benjamin (1779-1864), Scientist. Group of four autograph letters signed (“B. Silliman”), to Stephen Twining (1767-1832) and Alexander C. Twining (1801-1884), 1804-1846. Together 5 pages, 4to. [With:] SILLIMAN, Benjamin, Jr. Two ALS to A.C Twining, 4 Nov. 1857 and 6 July 1862. 2pp., 8vo.
The famous Yale scientist likens mathematics to “gravel stones in chickens gizzards”
Silliman Senior writes the elder Twining in 1804 as he embarks for Scotland: “I…think of you all affectionately but do not wish to see your faces till I have seen Europe.” A 2 September 1840 letter of introduction for Twining’s son Alexander, a professor of mathematics, civil engineering and astronomy at Middlebury, explains that Twining is visiting Yale “charged with the duty of making known the urgent wants of that important institution.” On 9 April 1846 he has editorial suggestions for a paper A. C. Twining submitted (presumably to his American Journal of Science): “It will be…important to study brevity and great consideration as our readers are impatient of mathematical discourses.” A theme he iterates in earthier imagery in an earlier (9 Feb. 1844) letter: “A certain portion of mathematics may be borne by our readers like gravel stones in chicken’s gizzards, promoting, as in thought, digestion, although themselves not easily digested.” That 1844 letter also discusses the extraction of iridium. Two notes from Silliman Junior discuss editorial and payment matters.
The famous Yale scientist likens mathematics to “gravel stones in chickens gizzards”
Silliman Senior writes the elder Twining in 1804 as he embarks for Scotland: “I…think of you all affectionately but do not wish to see your faces till I have seen Europe.” A 2 September 1840 letter of introduction for Twining’s son Alexander, a professor of mathematics, civil engineering and astronomy at Middlebury, explains that Twining is visiting Yale “charged with the duty of making known the urgent wants of that important institution.” On 9 April 1846 he has editorial suggestions for a paper A. C. Twining submitted (presumably to his American Journal of Science): “It will be…important to study brevity and great consideration as our readers are impatient of mathematical discourses.” A theme he iterates in earthier imagery in an earlier (9 Feb. 1844) letter: “A certain portion of mathematics may be borne by our readers like gravel stones in chicken’s gizzards, promoting, as in thought, digestion, although themselves not easily digested.” That 1844 letter also discusses the extraction of iridium. Two notes from Silliman Junior discuss editorial and payment matters.