Papers of Augustus De Morgan
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TitlePapers of Augustus De Morgan
Reference codeMS913A
Date1753-1870
Scope and ContentMorgan, Augustus De (1806–1871), mathematician and historian, fifth child of Colonel John De Morgan (1772–1816) of the Indian army, was born on 27 June 1806 at Madura in the far south of India. His mother, Elizabeth (1776–1856), was the daughter of John Dodson of the custom house, and granddaughter of James Dodson. Seven months after De Morgan's birth his family sailed for England with their five children, settling at Worcester. De Morgan was educated privately and sent to various schools, one of his teachers being J. Fenner, a Unitarian minister and an uncle of H. Crabb Robinson.
In February 1823 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge., and graduated as fourth wrangler in 1827. De Morgan was unanimously elected on 23 February 1828 the first professor of mathematics at the University of London. He gave his introductory lecture, ‘On the study of mathematics’, on 5 November 1828.De Morgan resigned his post in a letter dated 24 July 1831, but returned in October 1836 when his successor, G. J. P. White, was accidentally drowned. He was reappointed and served as professor for the next thirty years. At that time King's College, London, was being formed as an institution under the Church of England, London University became University College, and the two colleges merged as the University of London, an examining body which conferred degrees.
In the autumn of 1831 De Morgan moved to 5 Upper Gower Street, where he was a neighbour of William Frend, mathematician and political reformer. He married Frend's daughter, Sophia Elizabeth (1809–1892) on 3 August 1837, and settled in 69 Gower Street.
His book Elements of arithmetic (1830) was his second publication and was to see many editions. In 1838 he defined and introduced the term 'mathematical induction' putting a process that had been used without clarity on a rigorous basis. The term first appears in De Morgan's article Induction (Mathematics) in the Penny Cyclopedia. (Over the years he was to write 712 articles for the Penny Cyclopedia.) The Penny Cyclopedia was published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, set up by the same reformers who founded London University, and that Society also published a famous work by De Morgan The Differential and Integral Calculus. In 1849 he published Trigonometry and double algebra in which he gave a geometric interpretation of complex numbers. He recognised the purely symbolic nature of algebra and he was aware of the existence of algebras other than ordinary algebra. He introduced De Morgan's laws and his greatest contribution is as a reformer of mathematical logic.
De Morgan was elected in May 1828 a fellow of the Astronomical Society, he was placed on its council in 1830. He was secretary from 1831 to 1838 and from 1848 to 1854, and at other periods held office as vice-president. He also became a member of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK), founded by Lord Brougham and others in 1826. It published some of his early writings, and he contributed a great number of articles to its other publications: the Penny Cyclopaedia, for which he wrote about 850 of the articles, the Quarterly Journal of Education, and the unfortunately short-lived Biographical Dictionary. He also published with the society an Elements of Algebra (1835), and, especially, a massive and high-level Treatise on the Differential and Integral Calculus, which appeared in instalments between 1836 and 1842. He became a member of the committee in 1843. (The society was dissolved in 1846.)
De Morgan died on 18 March 1871 at his home, 6 Merton Road, Hampstead, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. His library consisted at the end of his life of about three thousand volumes. He was a genuine book-hunter, though his means compelled him to limit himself to occasional treasures from bookstalls. He made many amusing marginal and learned annotations, and turned his bibliographical researches to a good account in his historical writings. His library was bought after his death by Lord Overstone and presented to the University of London, where it became part of the University Library at its foundation.
In February 1823 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge., and graduated as fourth wrangler in 1827. De Morgan was unanimously elected on 23 February 1828 the first professor of mathematics at the University of London. He gave his introductory lecture, ‘On the study of mathematics’, on 5 November 1828.De Morgan resigned his post in a letter dated 24 July 1831, but returned in October 1836 when his successor, G. J. P. White, was accidentally drowned. He was reappointed and served as professor for the next thirty years. At that time King's College, London, was being formed as an institution under the Church of England, London University became University College, and the two colleges merged as the University of London, an examining body which conferred degrees.
In the autumn of 1831 De Morgan moved to 5 Upper Gower Street, where he was a neighbour of William Frend, mathematician and political reformer. He married Frend's daughter, Sophia Elizabeth (1809–1892) on 3 August 1837, and settled in 69 Gower Street.
His book Elements of arithmetic (1830) was his second publication and was to see many editions. In 1838 he defined and introduced the term 'mathematical induction' putting a process that had been used without clarity on a rigorous basis. The term first appears in De Morgan's article Induction (Mathematics) in the Penny Cyclopedia. (Over the years he was to write 712 articles for the Penny Cyclopedia.) The Penny Cyclopedia was published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, set up by the same reformers who founded London University, and that Society also published a famous work by De Morgan The Differential and Integral Calculus. In 1849 he published Trigonometry and double algebra in which he gave a geometric interpretation of complex numbers. He recognised the purely symbolic nature of algebra and he was aware of the existence of algebras other than ordinary algebra. He introduced De Morgan's laws and his greatest contribution is as a reformer of mathematical logic.
De Morgan was elected in May 1828 a fellow of the Astronomical Society, he was placed on its council in 1830. He was secretary from 1831 to 1838 and from 1848 to 1854, and at other periods held office as vice-president. He also became a member of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK), founded by Lord Brougham and others in 1826. It published some of his early writings, and he contributed a great number of articles to its other publications: the Penny Cyclopaedia, for which he wrote about 850 of the articles, the Quarterly Journal of Education, and the unfortunately short-lived Biographical Dictionary. He also published with the society an Elements of Algebra (1835), and, especially, a massive and high-level Treatise on the Differential and Integral Calculus, which appeared in instalments between 1836 and 1842. He became a member of the committee in 1843. (The society was dissolved in 1846.)
De Morgan died on 18 March 1871 at his home, 6 Merton Road, Hampstead, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. His library consisted at the end of his life of about three thousand volumes. He was a genuine book-hunter, though his means compelled him to limit himself to occasional treasures from bookstalls. He made many amusing marginal and learned annotations, and turned his bibliographical researches to a good account in his historical writings. His library was bought after his death by Lord Overstone and presented to the University of London, where it became part of the University Library at its foundation.
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Level of descriptionsub-fonds