Suction III., 1905. [ 79 ] Trans. R. S. C. 



X. — Bïbliograpliy of the Life and Worls of Simon Neivcomh. 

 By E. C. Archibald, M.A., Ph.D. 



(Communicated by Dr. S. E. Dawson and read May 24, 1905.) 



The following paper is presented to the Eoyal Society Tran- 

 sactions as another contribution to the department of Canadian bibli- 

 ography. 



Of the many ISTova Scotians who have distinguished themselves, not 

 one has been as highly honoured by scholars the world over, as Simon 

 Newcomb the astronomer, who was born in Wallace, Cumberland 

 County, on March 12, 1835.^ He has made valuable contributions to 

 Political Economy, is one of the three greatest mathematicians America 

 has ever produced and one of the greatest of living astronomers. He 

 has been a prolific writer and a prodigious worker. Practically all the 

 great bodies of scientific men in the world, have done him honour. 



It is now fifty years ago, almost to the very day, since the first 

 of Professor N'ewcomb's 'S\Titings" was published. It consisted of a 

 letter to a Washington newspaper and was a forerunner to his appoint- 

 ment, in 1857, as computer at the Nautical Almanac office, then 

 stationed at Cambridge, Mass. He was teaching, at the time, in Marv* 

 land whither he had gone in 1853 after having received most of his 

 education from his father who was a school teacher. The work at the 

 Nautical Almanac office did not interfere with attendance at Harvard 

 University where he graduated, B. Sc, in 1858, continuing thereafter 

 for three years as a graduate student. In 1861 he was appointed Pro- 

 fessor of mathematics in the United States Navy and assigned to duty 

 at the IT. S. naval observatory at Washington. In 1877, he became 

 senior professor of mathematics and director of the office of the Ameri- 

 can Ephemeris and Nautical almanac. This position he held till March 

 12, 1897, when, having attained to the age limit of 62 years, he was 

 pensioned off by the U. S. Government. 



Professor Newcomb's home is still in Washington and as the titles 

 in the following pages clearly show, there has been no falling off in 

 either the character or quantity of his valuable publications since his 

 "retirement" in 1897, 



* It may be noted that Newcomb's paternal grandmother (b. 1771) "was 

 the first white female child born in the district (now county) of Pictou, N.S." — 

 James Craig Watson (1838-80) was another of America's great astronomers, 

 and was born in Upper Canada. lîis mother, Rebecca Bacon, was a Nova 

 Scotian. 



