REDFIELD, WILLIAM C. (1789-1857). An American man of science and affairs, born at Middletown, Conn. In 1820 he became interested in steam navigation and after studying numerous boiler explosions which at that time were alarm ing the public, he founded a line of safety barges towed by a steamer at a safe distance to ply be tween New Yo•k and Albany. After public con fidence had been restored this line was utilized for the carriage of freight and became the prede cessor of the lines now ill operation. Sir. Red field was also active in beginning the New York and Albany, now the Harlem Railroad, and the New Haven and Hartford and the Hud son River railroads; and as early as 1829 he proposed the construction of a road connect ing the Mississippi With the Hudson. In science, though he devoted some attention to geology, his principal contributions were in the field of meteorology. He developed a theory of storms by which he sought to demonstrate that all violent gales are whirlwinds and have a rotary and progressive movement ; that the di rection of revolution is always uniform; and that the velocity of rotation increases from the mar gin toward the centre of the storm. He reor
ganized the American Association of Naturalists and Geologists as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and became its first president in 1843. Among his publications arc "Remarks on the Prevailing Storms of the Atlan tic Coast of the North American States" (Ameri can Journal of Science, vol. xx.) ; "Notice of American Steamboats" (ib., vol. xxiii.) ; "On the Courses of Hurricanes" (ib., vol. xxxv.) ; "Short Notices of American Fossil Fishes" (ib., vol. xli.) ; and "The Law of Storms and Its Penalties for Neglect" (New York Journal of Commerce, June 19, 1850). Consult Olmsted, Scientific Life and Labors of William C. Redfield (New Haven, 1857).