WILLIAM

See also:

• EMERSON, RALPH WALDO (1803-1882)
• WILLIAM EMERSON (1701-1782)

EMERSON (1701-1782)  , English mathematician, was born on the 14th of May 1701 at Hurworth, near Darlington, where his father, Dudley Emerson, also a mathematician, taught a school . Unsuccessful as a teacher he devoted himself entirely to studious retirement, and published many works which are singularly free from errata . In mechanics he never advanced a proposition which he had not previously tested in practice, nor published an invention without first proving its effects by a model . He was skilled in the science of music, the theory of sounds, and the ancient and modern scales; but he never attained any excellence as a performer . He died on the loth of May 1782 at his native village . Emerson was eccentric and indeed clownish, but he possessed remarkable independence of character and intellectual energy . The boldness with which he expressed his opinions on religious subjects led to his being charged with scepticism, but for this there was no foundation . Emerson's works include The Doctrine of Fluxions (1748) ; The Projection of the Sphere, Orthographic, Stereographic and Gnomical (1749) ; The Elements of Trigonometry_ (1749) ; The Principles of Mechanics (1754) ; A Treatise of Navigation (1755); A Treatise of Algebra, in two books (1765) ; The Arithmetic of Infinites, and the Differential Method, illustrated by Examples (1767) ; Mechanics, or the Doctrine of Motion (1769); The Elements of Optics, in four books (1768) ; .4 System of Astronomy (1769) ; The Laws of Centripetal and Centrifugal Force (1769); The Mathematical Principles of Geography (1770) ; Tracts (1770) ; Cyclomathesis, or an Easy Introduction to the several branches of the Mathematics (1770), in ten vols.; A Short Comment on Sir Isaac Newton's Principia; to which is added, A Defence of Sir Isaac against the objections that have been made to several parts of his works (1770) ; A Miscellaneous Treatise containing several Mathematical Subjects (1776) .