Arthur Stafford Hathaway (1855 — 1934) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

. Arthur was born September 15, 1855, in

Keeler, Michigan Keeler Township is a civil township in Van Buren County, Michigan, USA. At the 2020 census, the population was 1,968. Keeler Township is largely agricultural, though it has a large influx of summer visitors who own cottages or stay at summer ...

. A student at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, Hathaway earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in 1879. For two years he was instructor in mathematics at Friends High School in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. Hathaway studied with

James Joseph Sylvester James Joseph Sylvester (3 September 1814 – 15 March 1897) was an English mathematician. He made fundamental contributions to matrix theory, invariant theory, number theory, partition theory, and combinatorics. He played a leadership ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. From Sylvester's lectures he learned some

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

and published notes on congruences. He was an instructor at Cornell University from 1885 to 1890 and an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

in 1891. In October 1884

William Thomson, Baron Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 182417 December 1907), was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was the professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, where h ...

led a

master class ''Master Class'' is a 1995 play by American playwright Terrence McNally, presented as a fictional master class by opera singer Maria Callas near the end of her life, in the 1970s. The play features incidental vocal music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giac ...

on "Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light" at Johns Hopkins. Kelvin did not provide a text for his course and Hathaway made notes in short-hand. He wrote up the notes and duplicated them with a Papyrograph, a recent

stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object. The holes allow the pigment to reach only some parts of the surface creatin ...

-based device. As the demand outstripped the supply, Hathaway corresponded with Kelvin back in Glasgow to prepare for proper publication. After nineteen years the lectures were published. In 1987 Hathaway's original transcription from 1884 was published when Johns Hopkins Center for the History and Philosophy of Science decided to commemorate the centennial of Kelvin's lectures.Robert Kargon and Peter Achinstein (1987) ''Kelvin’s Baltimore Lectures and Modern Theoretical Physics: historical and philosophical perspectives'',

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in Vigo County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,389 and Terre Haute metropolitan area, its metropolitan area had a populati ...

Hathaway taught at

Rose Polytechnic Institute A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...

until 1920 and published ''A Primer on Quaternions'' in 1896. He became the U.S. national secretary for the international

Quaternion Society The Quaternion Society was a scientific society, self-described as an "International Association for Promoting the Study of Quaternions and Allied Systems of Mathematics". At its peak it consisted of about 60 mathematicians spread throughout the ac ...

in 1899.

Works

* 1883
Some Papers in the Theory of Numbers

American Journal of Mathematics The ''American Journal of Mathematics'' is a bimonthly mathematics journal published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. History The ''American Journal of Mathematics'' is the oldest continuously published mathematical journal in the United S ...

6: 316–30. * 1887
A Memoir in the Theory of Numbers
''American Journal of Mathematics'' 9(2): 162–79. * 1896
A Primer on Quaternions
from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

* 1897
Review: ''Non-Euclidean Geometry, or the Science of Absolute Space''
by Bolyai, translated by Halsted, in

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

, February 19, link from

Jstor JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...

Early Content. * 1901
A Primer on Calculus

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

, link from

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

. * 1901
"Pure mathematics for engineering students"

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society The ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'' is a quarterly mathematical journal published by the American Mathematical Society. Scope It publishes surveys on contemporary research topics, written at a level accessible to non-experts. ...

7(6):266–71. * 1902
Quaternion Space

Transactions of the American Mathematical Society The ''Transactions of the American Mathematical Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of pure and applied mathematics published by the American Mathematical Society. It was established in 1900. As a requirement, all articles must ...

3(1):46–59. * 1906
Analytic Dynamics
from

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Historical Math Collection. * 1920
Dog swims after duck problem

American Mathematical Monthly ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of mathematics. It was established by Benjamin Finkel in 1894 and is published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It is an exposi ...

27(1):31.

References

* Emily C. Warner (2004
Arthur S. Hathaway and the Theory of Numbers

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hathaway, Arthur Stafford 1855 births 1934 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians People from Van Buren County, Michigan Cornell University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Cornell University faculty Mathematicians from Michigan