History of East Hartford, (Hartford County) Connecticut United States of America

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Denison Olmsted, physicist, was born in East Hartford, Conn., June 18, 1791; son of Nathaniel and ?? (Kingsbury) Olmsted; grandson of Denison Kingsbury of Andover, Conn., and a descendant of James Olmsted of Essex, England, who settled in Cambridge, Mass., in September, 1632, removed with the earliest set-tiers to Hartford, Conn., in 1636, and was an original proprietor of that colony. Denison Olmsted was brought up in the family of Governor Tredwell, Farmington, Conn., where he was a clerk in the country store. He prepared for college in the school of James Morris and under the Rev. Dr. Noah Porter. He was graduated at Yale with highest honors, A.B., 1813, A.M., 1816; was a teacher in New London, Conn., 1813-15; tutor at Yale, 1815-17, and professor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology in the University of North Carolina, 1817-25. He began the first geological survey of North Carolina under the direction of the state board of agriculture in 1821, publishing a report of his work, 1824 and 1895. He also began researches to determine the practicability of obtaining illuminating gas from cotton in 1825, without definite results. He was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Yale, 1825-36, and of natural philosophy and astronomy, 1836-59. He published an elaborate theory of hailstones in 1830, which caused considerable dissent, but finally received the general endorsement of meteorologists. After the remarkable meteoric shower of November, 1833, he published a collection of observations that indicated their cosmical origin. Priority in putting forth these conceptions was disputed by Chladni, whose claims do not seem to have been so definitely established as those of Olmsted. With Professor Elias Loomis, he was the first of all observers to find Halley's comet on its return in 1835. He carried on a series of observations of the aurora borealis for several years, the results of which were published in Vol. VIII. of the "Smith-sonian Contributions to Knowledge" (1856). He invented the Olmsted stove which brought him considerable profit, and devised a preparation of lead and rosin for lubricating machinery. He was a member of many scientific societies in America and Europe, and contributed to their Transactions, and to the leading periodicals of the day. He prepared the following text books, which were almost universally used in the higher schools: Students' Commonplace Book (1828); Introduction to Natural Philosophy (2 vols., 1831); Compendium of Natural Philosophy (1832); Introduction to Astronomy (1839); Compendium of Astronomy (1841); Letters on Astronomy Addressed to a Lady (1841), and Rudiments of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy (1844). He is the author of: Thoughts on the Clerical Profession, essays (1817), and Life and Writings of Ebenezer Porter Mason (1842) and other biographical works. He died in New Haven, Conn., May 13, 1859.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of East Hartford, (Hartford County) Connecticut

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