The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Coffin, James Henry

COFFIN, James Henry, an American mathematician, born in Northampton, Mass., Sept. 6, 1806, died in Easton, Pa., Feb. 6, 1873. He graduated at Ainherst college in 1838, was afterward professor in Williams college till 1843, and superintended the establishment of Greylock observatory, on the mountain of that name in western Massachusetts, with the first combined self-registering aerometer and barometer. He was professor of mathematics and astronomy in Lafayette college, Easton, Pa., from 1846 till his death. He published " Solar and Lunar Eclipses," " A Discussion on the Meteoric Fire Ball," and " Winds of the Northern Hemisphere " (issued by the Smithsonian institution, 1851; enlarged and revised, 1873).