Memoir of William C. RedfieM. 355 



Aht. XXVI. — Biographical Memoir of William C. JRedfield;^ hj 



Professor Dexison Olmsted, of Yale College. 



[From a Discourse delivered before the American Association for the Advancement 



of Science, at Montreal, August 17th, 1857.] 



Me. William C. Kedfield, the well known author of a the- 

 ory of Storms, and of various other valuable contributions to 

 science, died at his residence in New York, Februarv 12, 1857. 

 A life passed in the ordinary walks of business, or m the quiet 

 of philosophical research, affords little of that romantic incident 

 which lends a charm to biography; still we think the life of Mr. 

 Bedfield will be found interesting and instructive in a three-fold 

 point of view, — as affording a marked example of the successful 

 pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, — as happily illustrating 

 the union, in the same individual, of the man of science with 

 the man of business, — and as exhibiting a philosopher, whose 

 researches have extended the boundaries of knowledge, and 

 greatly augmented the sum of human happiness. 



William C, Redfield was born at Middletown, Connecticut, on 

 the 25th of March, 1789. He was of pure English descent both 

 by the father's and mother's side. Uis father from a natural love 

 of adventure, chose in early youth a sea-faring life, and after- 

 guards followed the seas as a profession to the time of his death, 

 which happened when this, his eldest son, was only thirteen years 

 old. His early training, therefore^ devolved chiefly on his mother, 

 who was a woman of superior mental endowments, and of ex- 

 alted Christian character. 



The slender pecuniary resources of the family would not allow 

 young Redfield any opportunities of school education beyond 

 those of the common schools of Connecticut, which, at that time, 

 taught little more than the simplest rudiments — reading, spelling, 

 writing, and a little arithmetic ; and all access to the richer treas- 

 >ires of knowledge seemed to be forever denied him, when, at the 

 early age of fourteen, he was removed to Upper Middletown, now 

 called Cromwell, and apprenticed to a mechanic, whose tasks 

 engrossed every moment of his time except a part of his eve- 

 nings. These brief opportunities, however, he most diligently 

 spent in the acquisition of knowledge, eagerly devouring every 

 scientific work within his reach. He was denied even a lamp for 

 ^'eading by night, much of the time during his apprenticeship, 

 and could command no better light than that of a common wood 

 fire in the chimney corner. Under all these disadvantages, it 

 is evident that before he was twenty-one years of age he had 

 acquired no ordinary amount and variety of useful knowledge. 



We give place to this sketch of the life and scientific labors of the late Mr. 

 ^^dfield -^ith the more pleasure, bince the earliest and the largest portion of his 

 subsequent philosophical papers have been published in this Journal.— Eds. 



