JAMES IVORY, F.R.S., &c.
Born 1765. Died September 21, 1842.
This distinguished mathematician was born at Dundee and received the elements of his education in the public schools of that town. His father was a watchmaker and intended that his son should become a clergyman of the church of Scotland, for which purpose he sent him, when fourteen years old, to the University of St. Andrews. Here Ivory remained for six years, and had for his fellow student, Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Leslie, with whom, at the end of the above period he removed to the University of Edinburgh, where he remained one year to complete the course of study required as a qualification for admission into the church of Scotland. Circumstances, however, seem to have prevented Ivory from carrying out the intentions of his father, for, on leaving the university in 1786, he became an assistant teacher in an academy at that time recently established in Dundee. After remaining at this academy for three years, Ivory, in company with several others, established a factory for spinning flax at Douglastown, in Forfarshire. In this apparently uncongenial occupation he remained for fifteen years (from 1789 to 1804), but the undertaking proved unsuccessful and in 1804 the company ceased to exist. Mr. Ivory then obtained theappointment to a professorship of mathematics in the Royal Military College at Marlow, in Buckinghamshire (afterwards removed to Sandhurst), with which establishment he remained until his retirement from public service. This was the most active period of his life, for while fulfilling assiduously the duties of his professorship he continued unremittingly his scientific studies. His earliest writings were three memoirs, which he communicated in the years 1796, 1799, and 1802, to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The first of these was entitled, 'A New Series for the Rectification of the Ellipse;' the second, 'A New Method of Resolving Cubic Equations;' and the third, 'A New and Universal Solution of Kepler's Problem;' all of them evincing great analytical skill, as well as originality of thought. Mr. Ivory contributed fifteen papers to 'The Transactions of the Royal Society of London,' nearly all of them relating to physical astronomy, and every one containing mathematical investigations of the most refined nature. The first, published in the 'Transactions of 1809,' and entitled, 'On the Attractions of Homogeneous Ellipsoids,' is his most celebrated paper, in which he completely and definitely resolved the problem of attraction for every class of ellipsoidal bodies. Many of Ivory's remaining contributions, ranging through a period of nearly thirty years, related to the subject of the attraction of spheroids and the theory of the figure of the Earth, and some of them are considered masterpieces of analytical skill. One of the last subjects which occupied his attention was the possible equilibrium of a spheroid with three unequal axes when revolving about one of the axes, a fact which Jacobi had discovered. This Ivory demonstrates in the volume for 1838 of the 'Philosophical Transactions.' The volumes in 1823 and 1838, contain Ivory's two papers on the 'Theory of Atmospheric Refraction,' a subject which, next to the Theory of Attractions, engaged most seriously his attention on account of its great importance in astronomy and the curious mathematical difficulties which its investigation presents. For each of these papers he was awarded the Royal medal by the Society. Of all his contributions to the 'Transactions,' only one is purely mathematical; this is contained in the volume for 1831, and is entitled, 'On the Theory of Elliptic Transcendants.' Besides these contributions to the Royal Society, Ivory wrote several papers in the Philosophical Magazine of 1821-27; in Maseres's 'Scriptores Logarithmici;' in Leybourne's 'Mathematical Repository;' and in the Supplement to the sixth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In the beginning of 1819 Ivory, finding that his health began to decline under the great exertions which he made in carrying on his scientific researches, and performing his duties as professor, resigned his professorship at Sandhurst and retired into private life. In consideration, however, of his great merit, the pension due for the full period of service required by the regulations was granted to him, although that period had not been completed.After his retirement, Ivory devoted himself entirely to his scientific researches, living in or near London until his death. In 1814 he had received the Copley medal for his communications to the Royal Society; in 1815 he became a Fellow of the same society. He was also an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy and of the Cambridge Philosophical Society; a corresponding member of the Institute of France, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, and of the Royal Society of Göttingen.
In the year 1831, in consideration of the great talent displayed in his investigations, Ivory was recommended by Lord Brougham, whom he had known in early life, to the notice of the King (Wm. IV.), who, with the Hanoverian Guelphic Order of Knighthood, gave him an annual pension of 300l., which he enjoyed during the rest of his life; and in 1839 he received the degree of Doctor in Laws from the University of St. Andrews.
Mr. Ivory attained the age of seventy-seven before his death; he was essentially a self-taught mathematician, and spent most of his leisure in retirement. He fathomed in private the profoundest writings of the most learned continental mathematicians, and at a period when few Englishmen were able to understand those difficult works; he even added to their value by many original contributions, and must always be remembered with special interest when the singular destitution of higher mathematical talent, which had reigned in this country for so long a period before his time, is considered.—English Cyclopædia.London, 1856.—Encyclopædia Britannica.Eighth Edition.