James Whitbread Lee Glaisher (5 November 1848, in

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

— 7 December 1928, in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

) was a prominent English mathematician and astronomer. He is known for Glaisher's theorem, an important result in the field of integer partitions, and for the Glaisher–Kinkelin constant, a number important in both mathematics and physics. He was a passionate collector of English ceramics and valentines, much of which he bequeathed to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Life

He was born in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

on 5 November 1848 the son of the eminent astronomer James Glaisher and his wife, Cecilia Louisa Belville. His mother was a noted photographer. He was educated at St Paul's School from 1858. He became somewhat of a school celebrity in 1861 when he made two hot-air balloon ascents with his father to study the stratosphere. He won a Campden Exhibition Scholarship allowing him to study at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, where he was second wrangler in 1871 and was made a Fellow of the college. Influential in his time on teaching at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, he is now remembered mostly for work in

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 ...

that anticipated later interest in the detailed properties of

modular form In mathematics, a modular form is a holomorphic function on the complex upper half-plane, \mathcal, that roughly satisfies a functional equation with respect to the group action of the modular group and a growth condition. The theory of modul ...

s. He published widely over other fields of mathematics. Glaisher was elected FRS in 1875. He was the editor-in-chief of '' Messenger of Mathematics''. He was also the 'tutor' of the philosopher

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

(tutor being a non-academic role in Cambridge University). He was president of the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

1886–1888 and 1901–1903. When George Biddell Airy retired as Astronomer Royal in 1881 it is said that Glaisher was offered the post but declined. He lived in a set of rooms at Trinity College. He died there on 7 December 1928. He was a keen cyclist but preferred his penny-farthing to the newer "safety" bicycles. He was President of Cambridge University Cycling Club 1882 to 1885. He was a keen collector of English Delftware and other popular English pottery, much of it then below the notice of other collectors. The university indulged him by allowing him a room of the Fitzwilliam Museum to house his personal collection. He also amassed a collection of some 1,600 valentines, which he bequeathed to the museum.R. Virag. ''Valentines: Highlights from the Collection at The Fitzwilliam Museum.'' Cambridge: 2018.

Awards

*Honorary doctorate (DSc) from the

University of Dublin The University of Dublin (), corporately named as The Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a research university located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dublin, whi ...

in 1892 *Honorary doctorate (DSc) from

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

in 1902 *Winner of the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...

's De Morgan Medal in 1908 *Winner of the Royal Society's Sylvester Medal in 1913 *Fellow of the Royal Society in 1875 at the young age of 27

Publications

Glaisher published over 400 articles on various topics, including astronomy, special functions, and number theory, and was editor and contributor to both the '' Messenger of Mathematics'' and the '' Quarterly Journal of Mathematics''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Glaisher, James Whitbread Lee 1848 births 1928 deaths 19th-century English mathematicians 20th-century English mathematicians Number theorists Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People educated at St Paul's School, London Second Wranglers Fellows of the Royal Society Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Lewisham 19th-century English astronomers Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge De Morgan Medallists Presidents of the Royal Astronomical Society James Whitbread Lee 20th-century English astronomers Presidents of the Cambridge Philosophical Society