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NATURE 
183 
THE LATE MR. ARCHIBALD. SMITIT 
M R, ARCHIBALD SMITH was born at Glasgow 
in 1813; his father, Mr. James Smith, of Jordan- 
hill, Lanarkshire, was well known as a geologist, and as 
the author of a learned and critical work on the Voyage 
and Shipwreck of St. Paul. 
At the University of Glasgow Mr. Smith was a con- 
temporary of the late Norman McLeod and of the present 
‘Archbishop of Canterbury, with both of whom he retained 
a friendship through life. 
Fram Glasgow he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, 
where, while still an undergraduate, he commenced to 
contribute papers to the Mathematical journals ; his first, 
a most important paper “On the Equation to Fresnel’s 
Wave Surface,” is an excellent example of the extreme 
neatness and elegance of his style; it was published 
under the signature A. S. in the Cambridge Phil. Frans. 
and ja the Phil, Magazine. 
He, hawever, as the result well showed, did not allow 
his amateur mathematics to interfere with the regular 
course of Tripos reading, and he also found time for a 
good share of athletic exercise. He pulled in the Trinity 
boat of which the late Lord Justice Selwyn was stroke ; 
all the oars in- that boat were reading men, and were 
familiarly known as “ Peacock’s examples” (Peacock 
being a well-known tutor of the day). It was no doubt 
owing to Mr. Smith’s strong physical constitution which 
was thus well trained in early life, that he was able so 
long to sustain the great strain of mental effort and the 
want of rest to which he never scrupled to subject himself 
in after years when occasion required. 
In 1836 he finished his undergraduate’s career by 
taking the first place in the mathematical tripos as well 
as the first Smith’s prize, and he was soon after elected a 
Fellaw of his College. The second wrangler of his year 
was Hishap Colenso. : 
Having chosen the profession of the Chancery Bar, 
Mr, Smith became a pupil and a friend of Mr. James 
Parker, afterwards Vice-Chancellor, and is said to have 
acquired the sound legal learning and careful method 
which distinguished that judge, It was during the inter- 
vals of his laborious Chancery practice that he found time 
for the long serjes of magnetic investigations which has 
ni him famous throughout Europe. 
is connection with Magnetic Science arose from 
intimacy with Sir Edward Sabine, the late distinguished 
president of the Royal Society, and who was interested in 
the questian of the Deviation of the Compass, first as 
member ef a cammittee appointed by the Admiralty to 
consider the question, and afterwards as having under- 
taken the reduction and publication of the magnetic ob- 
seryatians made by Sir James Ross in his Antarctic 
voyage 
lethe Bl 1842 to 1847 Mr. Smith, at General (then 
Colonel) Sabine’s request, deduced from Poisson's general 
equations, formule for the correction of the observations 
. made on board ship. These were published in successive 
numbers of Sabine’s “ Contributions to Terrestrial Mag- 
netism,” in the Transactions of the Royal Society. 
Ia 1851, at the request of Captain Johnson, the superin- 
tendent of the Compass Department of the Royal Navy, 
he deduced from the formule the convenient tabular 
forms, and computed the auxiliary tables for determining 
the co-efficients A, B, C, D, E, which have ever since been 
in use. ‘hese were published by the Admiralty in suc- 
cessive editions, but without the demonstrations or 
formule. 
In 1859 Mr. Archibald Smith edited and published the 
voyage of Scoresby to Australia, which was undertaken 
chiefly for magnetic research ; and in his introduction 
gave, for the first time, the exact formule for the effect of 
the iron of a ship on the compass, the former approximate | few hours’ duration, 
formulz being found insufficient, 
Se ee as 
In 1862 he, conjointty with Captain Evans, the present 
chief of the Compass department, prepared the Admiralty 
Compass Manual, a book which has since been translated 
into French, German, Russian, and Portuguese, and 
gone through three editions. The work is divided into 
four parts, the first of which contains practical rules to 
enable a seaman by the process of swinging his ship to 
obtain a table of the deviations of the compass aq each 
point, and then to apply the tabular corrections to the 
courses steered. The second part is a description of 
“Napier’s graphic method,” the practical advantages of 
which are that it enables the navigator from observations 
of deviations made on any number of courses, whether 
equi-distant or not, to construct a curve in which the 
errors of observation are as far as possible mutually com- 
pensated, and which gives him the deviation as well on 
the compass courses as on the correct magnetic courses. 
Part IEE. contains the practical application to this subject 
of mathematical formulz derived from the fundamental 
equations deduced by Poisson from Coulomb's theory of 
magnetism. Prior to this time it was considered suf- 
ficient to use approximate formule, going as far only 
as terms involving the first powers of the co-efficients of 
deviation ; but the very Jarge deviations found in iron- 
plated ships of war rendered it desirable to use in certain 
cases the exact instead of the approximate formule, and 
this part was therefore re-written. The fourth part of the 
“Manual” contains charts of the lines of equal variation, 
equal dip, and equal horizontal force over the globe; the 
first for the purpose of enabling the navigator at sea to 
determine the deviation by astronomical observations, the 
two latter to throw light on the changes which the devia- 
tions undergo in a lengthened voyage, and to enable the 
navigator to anticipate the changes which will take place 
on a change of geographical position. 
All Mr. Smith's investigations were undertakea as 
labours of love ; but we must not leave unnoticed some 
of the recognitions which he received. 
In the year 1865 one of the Royal medals of the Royal 
Society was awarded to him, and he was elected a corre- 
sponding member of the Naval Scientific Committee of 
Russia; in the following year the Emperor of Russia, 
with a most complimentary letter, presented him with a 
gold compass emblazoned with the Imperial .arms, and 
set with brilliants. 
Recently, too, our own Government offered him a 
present of 2,000/., and intimated the fact to him in a 
andsome letter from the First Lord of the Admiralty, 
begging his acceptance, not by way of recompense, but 
as a mark of the high appreciation which the Goyern- 
ment had for the services he had rendered. 
The history of Mr. Archibald Smith's legal life is soon 
told. He attained the reputation of being an eminently 
concise and perspicuous draughtsman, and made a prac- 
tice at the bar which was above the average both in 
extent and importance. 
When Sir James Parker was made Vice-Chancellor he 
appointed Mr. Smith his Secretary ; but the early death 
of Sir James brought these duties to a close, Later, a 
Judgeship in Queensland was offered to him, which he 
declined. It is said that the important change which 
has substituted figures for words as to dates and sums 
occurring in bills in Chancery was made at the suggestion 
of Mr. Archibald Smith. ; 
In 1868, when the Universities of Glasgow and Aber- 
deen were formed into a parliamentary constituency the 
liberal electors chose Mr. Smith as their candidate, and 
they did their best, though without avajl, to bring him in 
for the new seat. 
About two years ago he was compelled by ill-health to 
give up work ; but he had greatly rallied ; and the attack 
which ended fatally was totally unexpected, and of but a 
In private life thase who knew Mr. 
| Smith best admired him most; he leaves unnumbered 
