566 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (ROBINSON ROGERS.) 



evenly balanced between the two candidates for 

 Governor. Alonzo B. Cornell (for re-election) and 

 Charles J. Folger, who was then Secretary of the 

 Treasury under President Arthur. The Blaine men 

 were for Cornell, the Arthur men for Folger, both 

 sides looking to the presidential nomination in 

 1884. Robertson, who was a delegate to the con- 

 vention, was for Cornell and Blaine. He was unable 

 to attend, and an alleged proxy from him was voted 

 upon and turned the scale in favor of Folger. Af- 

 ter the convention had adjourned it was discovered 

 that the proxy wasta forgery. This so incensed the 

 Cornell-BIaine voters that they stayed away from 

 the polls in large numbers, and the election for 

 that reason went to Grover Cleveland by the un- 

 precedented majority of 193,000. When Mr. Blaine 

 was a candidate for the presidency in 1884 he was 

 opposed by enough of the Folger-Arthur men of 

 1882 to compass his defeat. 



Robinson, Frank Torrey. art critic, born in 

 Salem, Mass., July 16, 1845 ; died in Roxbury, Mass., 

 June 3, 1898. He was educated in Harvard and 

 Warren schools, Charlestown. In his sixteenth 

 year he enlisted in the 5th Massachusetts Volun- 

 teers and he served in the North Carolina and Vir- 

 ginia campaigns. On his return from the war he 

 followed various occupations, finally taking up 

 news correspondence. He was local reporter for 

 the Boston "Journal," Boston "Advertiser," and 

 " Bunker Hill Times " ; in 1875 began art criticisms ; 

 and from 1879 till 1883 was editor of the Boston 

 " Sunday Times." For three years he was art di- 

 rector of the New England Manufacturers' Insti- 

 tute. Subsequently he became art critic 'for the 

 Boston ' Traveler," and later of the Boston " Post." 

 He was editor of a periodical, "American Art," 

 published in Boston between 1886 and 1888 ; con- 

 tributed many articles to the " Art Interchange," 

 of New York, under the pseudonym Torrey ; and 

 for years acted as literarv curator of the Metropoli- 

 tan Museum of Art, New York, where he edited cata- 

 logues and handbooks. He wrote " The History of 

 the 5th Regiment. Massachusetts Volunteers." He 

 also published " Quaint New England " ; " Living 

 New England Artists " (1808) ; " Christmas Morn- 

 ing " (1890) ; and " Winds of the Seasons " (1890). 



Roche, John Alexander, clergyman, born in 

 Stillpond, Md.. Aug. 30. 1813; died' in New York 

 city, Feb. 15, 1898. He was ordained in the Metho- 

 dist Episcopal Church in 1834, joining the Phila- . 

 delphia Conference. Immediately after ordination 

 he took the regular course in the Philadelphia Col- 

 lege of Medicine, and afterward practiced for many 

 years, but only to help the poor. His active minis- 

 try covered a period of more than sixty years, and 

 extended over charges in Pennsylvania, Maryland, 

 Virginia, Delaware, and New York. He was widely 

 known in his denomination as a preacher, debater, 

 and author, and, besides much work in biography 

 and on themes connected with the doctrine, disci- 

 pline 1 , or usages of his denomination, he published 

 " Life of the Hev. John Price Durbin, D. D." (New 

 York, 1889) and "Life of Mrs. Sarah A. Lankford 

 Palmer "(1898). 



Rogers, William Augustus, physicist, born in 

 Waterford, Conn., Nov. 13, 1832 ; died in Water- 

 ville, Me., March 1, 1898. He was graduated at 

 Brown University with the degree of A. M. in 1857. 

 A call to the mathematical department of Alfred 

 University was promptly accepted, and in 1859 he 

 was made full professor of that subject. In 1864 

 he enlisted in the United States navy, in which he 

 remained until the autumn of 1865, when he re- 

 sumed his duties at Alfred and engaged in the 

 building and equipping of the university observa- 

 tory. In 1866 he was appointed first professor in 

 charge of the department of industrial mechanics. 



In 1866-'67 he spent some time in the Sheffield 

 Scientific School of Yale University, specially de- 

 voting his attention to those subjects that would 

 fit him for the new appointment. Four years later 

 he resigned his chair at Alfred and became assist- 

 ant in the observatory of Harvard University, re- 

 ceiving in 1875 further recognition by his promo- 

 tion to the assistant professorship in astronomy. 

 In 1886 he was called to the chair of Physics and 

 Astronomy in Colby University, Waterville, Me., 

 where he continued until his death, although he 

 had accepted the appointment of Professor of 

 Physics at Alfred, to take effect from April 1. The 

 physical laboratory of which he was to take charge 

 was planned by him, and when the corner stone 

 was laid, June 23, 1897, he delivered the dedicatory 

 address. At Harvard University his special work 

 consisted in observing and mapping all the stars, 

 down to the ninth magnitude, in a narrow belt, a 

 little north of our zenith. The observations on this 

 work extended over a period of eleven years and 

 required fifteen years for their reduction. His re- 

 sults were published in the " Annals of Harvard 

 Observatory, as follow: "Observations made with 

 Meridian Circle, 1871-1872 " ; " Observations of 

 Fundamental Stars made with Meridian Circle, 1870- 

 1886"; "Catalogue of 8,627 stars between 49 50' 

 and 50 10' of North Declination, 1875 " ; " Discus- 

 sion of Proper Motions of Zone Stars, 1879-1883 " ; 

 "Journal of Zone Observations during the Years) 

 1870-1875 " ; " Journal of Zone Observations during 

 the Years 1875-1883." One of the earliest difficul- 

 ties that he met with in his researches was the find- 

 ing of micrometer spider webs that were suitable 

 for his work. After numerous experiments he suc- 

 ceeded in etching glass with the moist fumes of 

 hydrofluoric acid so satisfactorily that he re- 

 ceived from the United States Government the 

 order for the plates that were used by the expedi- 

 tions sent out by this country to observe the transits 

 of Venus. His study of this subject, extending 

 over a quarter of a century, made him an authority 

 in all that pertains to micrometrical work. The 

 articles on "Measuring Machines " and "Ruling 

 Machines" in "Johnson's Universal Cyclopa'dia'' 

 were written by him. He made a specialty of con- 

 struction of comparators for the determination of 

 differences in length, thus establishing useful work- 

 ing standards of measurement for practical me- 

 chanical work, which resulted in the Rogers-Bond 

 Universal Comparator, built by the Pratt & Whit- 

 ney Company, of Hartford, Conn., who were thus 

 enabled to establish their system of standard gauges. 

 In 1880 he visited Europe and obtained authorized 

 copies -of the English and French standards of 

 length, which were used by him as the basis of 

 comparison for bars which he constructed and ruled, 

 and these are now the chief standards in the most 

 important laboratories in the United States. Hii 

 micrometer rulings, both on metal and on glass, ar > 

 known to microscopists for their accuracy nnd for 

 the character and beauty of the lines. Subsequent 

 to his acceptance of a chair in Colby he began tli 1 

 study of certain mercurial thermometers, and by 

 comparison with these he secured a standard for 

 the measurement of very low temperatures. I i 

 connection with Prof. Edward W. Morley. he ap- 

 plied optical methods to the determination of mi- 

 nute changes of length, and later determined tli' 

 coefficient of linear expansion of Jessop steel wit i 

 a degree of precision never before attained. Th 

 degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Yale in 

 1880, that of Ph. D. by Alfred in 1886, and that . f 

 LL. D. by Brown in 1892. In 1873 he was elected 

 a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, and in 1880 'he was elected a fellow of flu 1 

 Royal Microscopical Society of London, becoming 



