SILLIMAN, BENJAMIN, American physicist, was b. at North Strafford wow Trum. bull). Conn., United States, Aug. 8, 1779. his father was a distinguished lawyer. and a in the war of independence. He was educated at Yale college, New Haven, in which he was appointed a tutor in 1799, and was admitted to the bar in 1802, bat soon after received from the college the appointment of professor of chemistry; AVI.kh lie accepted only on condition of visiting some of the seats of learning in Europe, to observe time progress of the science. llis tour in Europe, 1805-6, was oueof the first of which as account was published in the United States. Uniting mineralogy and geology to chem istry, he made a geological survey of Connecticut, observed the fall of a meteorite; con atructed. with the aid of prof. Hare, a compound blow-pipe, and repeated the experi ments of sir Humphry Davy. In 1822 he first established the fact of the transfer of particles of carbon from the positive to the negative electrode of the voltaic apparatus.
In 1818 he founded the Aigeoam Journal of Sciences and Arts, batter known as Silli man's Journal, of which he was for 20 years the sole, and for 8 more the principal editor. Besides his labors as professor and editor, he began in America the since widely extended work of popular scientific education, by giving public lectures on his favorite sciences in all the chief cities. In 1830 he published a text-book on chemistry, and soon afterward edited an edition of BskewelCs Geology. An account of his last visit to Europa was published in 1851, and reached 6 editions. His last course of lectures was given in 1833, when his son, BENJAMIN SiLmataN, Jr., who had been his associate, became his successor. He died in Nov., 1864.