EMERSON, WILLIAM, an eminent mathematician, philosopher, and mechanist, was born at Hurworth, a village about three miles from Darlington, in June 1701. He died May 20th, 1782, at his uative place, aged nearly eighty-one years.
His father, Dudley Emerson, was a 'schoolmaster, and is said to have been a tolerable proficient in the mathematics of that time : this circumstance furnished his son with ample means of cultivating his taste for the same science, both by means of a good mathematical library which his father possessed, and the good mathematical tuition which he received in his earlier years. A young clergyman, then curate of Hurworth, also lodged in his father's house, and from him he received all requisite assistance in the study of the Greek and Roman classics, in which he became well versed.
After the death of his father, Emerson attempted to continue the school, which however he soon relinquished ; but whether it arose from the impetuosity of his temper, which rendered him unfit, for such an occupation, or that a small competence left him by his father (he being an only child) rendered it a matter of indifference to him to increase his income, cannot be ascertained. He devoted his long life to writing a series of mathematical works, which, except those of Simpson, were, till a comparatively recent time, the very beat in our language. Ho also contributed largely to the different mathematical penodicals of his time, though almost always under some fanciful name, as Merones, Philofluentimecanalgegeomastrolongo, &c.
Mr. Emerson waa in person rather short, but strong and well formed, with an open honest countenance and ruddy complexion. A portrait of him, by Sykes, was painted and engraved in the latter part of his life; but it le not often to be met with, as only a few copies of it were circulated. His health was generally excellent till near the latter part of his life, when he became a great sufferer from the stone.
Emerson was in many respects a very eccentric person, fancifully coarse in his dress, and uncourteous in his conversation. .He was nevertheless, when in his happier moods, a delightful companion, and his discourse full of instruction, deep thought, and startling originality of opinion.
All his books were published in London ; and it was his invariable practice to walk to town and shut himself up in some obscure lodging to devote himself sedulously to the correction of the successive sheets of his works with a care never exceeded even by Hamilton or Cruden ; and certainly, of all the mathematical works that have ever been published, those of Emerson arc the freest from errata.
Emerson was married, but had no children. He amused himself with fishing, a diversion to which he was much attached, and would frequently stand up to his middle in the water for hours together when he found it gave him a better position for the use of his fly or his angle. He was an excellent practical mechanic, and of most of
the machines described in his work on mechanics he had made very good models. The spinning-wheel delineated in that work was the one on which his wife employed her leisure hours. He had also a very profound knowledge of the musical scales, both ancient and modern, although he was but a poor performer; still he was dexterous in the repair of musical instruments, and was generally employed to tune the harpsichords and clean the clocks throughout the district in which be resided.
The bold and frank manner in which Emerson spoke on all subjects has led some persons to affirm that he was a sceptic in religion. Of this however there is rot the slightest evidence ; but it appears to have arisen from the insinuations of his scientific opponents, who thus attempted to crush his reputation with the world, and thereby weaken his anthority iu matters connected with science—a course too often adopted in our own day by those who contend for victory rather than truth. Emerson was through a long life universally accounted a man of integrity; but his honesty often led to dogmatism, and his indig nation at error to an expression of feeling that gave his controversial writings an air of ungracious severity.
A considerable number of Emerson's processes are marked with peculiar elegance and considerable powers of invention ; still there is apparent in all of them a want of that power of generalisation which distinguishes the highest order of minds. His 'Method of Increments' is the most original of his works; and his 'Doctrine of Elusions' is perhaps the most elegant. His 'Mechanics' is the work by which he is moat generally known, a circumstance probably owing to its con taining descriptions of so many of the more usual and useful machines ; but it is a work singularly crude and ill-digested, and not less singularly incomplete in even the enunciation of tho moat important principles of mechanical science.
The following is a list of his works, all in 8vo, except his 'Mechanics and Increments' in 4to, end his ' Navigation ' in 12mo :-1, ‘Doctriee of Fluxion;' 2, 'Projection of the Sphere, Orthographic, Stereographic, and Gnomonic ;' 3, 'The Elements of Trigonometry ;' 4, Principles of Mechanics ;' 5, 'A Treatise on Navigation ;' 6, 'A Treatise on Arithmetic ;' 7, 'A Treatise on Geometry;' 8, 'A Treatise on Algebra;' 0, The Method of Increments ;' 10, ' Arithmetic of Infinities, and the Conic Sections, with other curve lines ;' 11, Elements of Optics and Perspective;' 12, ' Astronomy ;' 13, 'Mechanics, with Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces ;' 14, Mathematical Principles of Geography, Navigation, and Dialling ;' 15, 'Commentary on the Principia, with a Defence of Newton ;' 16, ' Miscellanies.'