THE INCORPORATORS 183 
of building stones from heat, the motion of the axis of the 
aneroid barometer, changes in magnetic dip, etc. Other inven- 
tions of Saxton’s were an automatic damper for stoves, a fusible 
metallic sealing compound for official papers sent to tropical 
countries, and a hydrometer. 
About fifteen years before his death, Saxton suffered a partial 
stroke of paralysis, from which he never entirely recovered. 
He died in Washington on October 26, 1873. 
(From Jos—EPpH HENRY, in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of 
Sciences, vol. 1, 1877, pp. 287-316.) 
BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, SENIOR 
Born, August 8, 1779; died, November 24, 1864 
In common with several other founders of the Academy, the 
lifetime of Benjamin Silliman extended from the period of the 
Revolution to that of the Civil War. At the time of his birth, 
the independence of the United States was not yet an accom- 
plished fact. His father, General Gold Selleck Silliman, bore 
an honorable part in the Revolutionary struggle. The Silliman 
family had resided for many years in the town of Fairfield, 
Connecticut, but in 1779 the British forces invaded the coast 
towns of that State and the family took refuge in Stratford 
(now Trumbull), and here Benjamin Silliman was born on the 
8th day of August. He entered Yale College at the early age 
of thirteen years, and was graduated in 1796. Upon graduation 
he took up the study of law and after the lapse of three years also 
assumed the duties of a tutor in Yale College. He was admitted 
to the bar in 1802, but was not destined to follow the profession 
for which he had fitted himself. He was persuaded by President 
Dwight of Yale to abandon that calling and devote himself to 
chemistry and the natural sciences, which were then beginning 
to be looked upon as necessary to a college curriculum. Accord- 
ingly, he was elected the same year Professor of Chemistry and 
Natural History at Yale, though he did not begin to lecture on 
these subjects until two years later. These two years he spent 
in Philadelphia as a student of Dr. Woodhouse and in pursuing 
