Samuel Vince

Samuel Vince (1821)

Samuel Vince (born April 6, 1749 in Fressingfield , † November 28, 1821 in Ramsgate ) was a British mathematician , astronomer and clergyman .

Vince was the son of a bricklayer and helped his father with work until he was twelve years old. A clergyman noticed him reading while he was working and took care of his training. He studied from 1771 as a Sizar (scholarship holder) at Caius College, Cambridge University , where he was Senior Wrangler in the Tripos exams in 1775 and won the Smith Prize . In 1777 he moved to Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge (as Samuel Taylor Lecturer, but he was not a Fellow), earned his Magister Artium in 1778 and was ordained as a clergyman in 1779. He then had various positions in the Anglican Church - in 1809 he became Archdeacon of Bedford . In 1796 he became Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge, which he remained until his death.

In 1780 he received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society, of which he became a fellow in 1786. He wrote a textbook of astronomy (A Complete System of Astronomy, 3 volumes, 1797-1808), published sermons in Cambridge and a defense of the Christian faith against David Hume . His experimental and theoretical investigations into flow resistance were influential in the early experiments in aviation (for example by the Wright brothers ).

Vince had been married since 1780.

He has given the Royal Society's Bakerian Lecture several times .

literature

• Vince, Samuel . In: John Archibald Venn (Ed.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 2: From 1752 to 1900 , Volume 6 : Square – Zupitza . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1954, pp. 292 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Web links

• Publications by S. Vince in the Astrophysics Data System