American physicist, born in Wellington, CT, on the 7th of August 1811; he graduated in 1830 at Yale, where he became tutor from 1833 to 1836; spent a year in Paris, attending the lectures of Arago, Biot, Dulong, etc.; professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Western Reserve College, Ohio, from 1837 to 1844; professor of natural philosophy in the University of the City of New York from 1844 to 1860, when he was called to the chair of natural philosophy and astronomy in Yale. He published a series of textbooks, embracing the whole range of mathematics, natural philosophy, astronomy and meteorology, which reached an aggregate circulation of 500,000 copies. His Treatise on Analytical Geometry and Calculus has been translated into the Chinese language, and his Treatise on Meteorology into Arabic; his Treatise on Astronomy is used as a textbook in England. His scientific papers, exceeding 125 in number, embrace the various departments of meteorology, the phenomena of auroral exhibitions and atmospheric electricity, territorial magnetism, astronomical observations, shooting-stars, solar spots, etc. He assisted in the first observations by which the velocity of the electric fluid on telegraph wires was determined, January 23, 1849. Professor Loomis was a member of the principal scientific societies of the United States and also of several scientific academies of Europe. Among his most prominent books are Progress of Astronomy (1850 and 1856); Natural Philosophy (1858); Practical Astronomy (1855 and 1865). He died in New Haven, CT, on the 16th of August 1889.
