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 JOSEPH HENRY, in Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, vol. I, 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 



