452 



PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



curve, the object being to show that it was an hyperboloid, the 

 equation of which he had computed. In 1859 he received the 

 degree of LL. D. from Rutgers College. 



His chief reputation, in science, was achieved by his re- 

 searches in the department of meteorology. These were com- 

 menced in 1839, while principal of the Ogdensburg (N. Y.) 

 Academy. He took simultaneous and constant observations 

 of the barometric changes connected with the variations of the 

 wind-vane and with the fall of rain. His instruments were 

 self-registering. Each motion of the vane directed a minute 

 but constant stream of dry sand into some one of thirty-two 

 stationary hoppers, corresponding in position to as many points 

 of compass. The weight of sand found in the several re- 

 ceptacles below each hopper showed the length of time that 

 the vane had pointed in that direction. The rain-gauge was an 

 inverted cone, having an horizontal surface of 172.8 square 

 inches : the rain falling into it passed down, through an orifice 

 so small that no appreciable evaporation could occur, into a 

 close-fitting can. One inch of rain in depth would, therefore, 

 make *f m of a cubic foot when collected, the weight of which 

 is one hundred ounces. Each ounce that the can contained 

 after a storm, consequently, represented '/ I00 of an inch in per- 

 pendicular fall. The amount necessary to merely moisten the 

 funnel without precipitation into the can is easily determined 

 as a constant. The results of these observations for the year 



1838 were published by Prof. Coffin in the Meteorological 

 Register, a monthly journal, of which he issued the first num- 

 ber in January, 1839. It was devoted to the discussion of va- 

 rious phenomena connected with physical science. Though the 

 demand for a periodical of this nature was insufficient to sus- 

 tain it, it brought into correspondence many who were in- 

 terested in such subjects. The investigation of rainfall and 

 evaporation had present practical value in being made the basis 

 of the report of the committee of the New York Senate, in 



1839 to 1840, appointed to consider the enlargement of the canal 

 system of the State by the construction of the Genesee Valley 

 Canal. These studies were afterward extended to form the 

 chapter on the climate of the State, published in the Natural 

 History of New York, in 1845, in which the inquiries took a 

 wider range ; and questions of vegetation, agricultural epochs, 

 the migration of birds, etc., were introduced. A determination 



