Indeed. And if you are interested in Benjamin Peirce's life, I suggest
you to take a look, for instance, at an old booklet written by Archibald
in 1925 [1]. You may be pleased also to consult [2].
| (1) Which is the correct date: 1870 or 1881?
|
The following statement
"IDEMPOTENT and NILPOTENT were used by Benjamin Peirce (1809-1880)
in 1870 in American Journal of Mathematics (1881)"
seems, as you read it, a bit misleading.
Our library of 'classics' was close today, and will be close tomorrow,
and so I have not checked the source, but if I am not mistaken Peirce
read his famous memoir [3] before the National Academy of Sciences
in Washington some time prior to 1870.
At all events, Peirce, having realized that the National Academy of
Sciences could not afford to publish his memoir, carried out himself
this task at his own expenses, in 1870. At this point I cannot resist
quoting a few lines from Grattan-Guinness' latest book:
"The USA has hardly featured in this book up to now; and the
economic difficulties for mathematics there are indicated by
the fact that this Professor of Mathematics at Harvard
University and Director of the Geodetic Survey of his country
had to publish this work as a lithograph, written out by a
lady with no mathematical training but a beautiful hand, from
which 100 copies were printed at 12 pages a time on the
lithographic stone." [4, p. 536]
At first the influence of Peirce's important memoir "Linear Associative
Algebra" was felt only in the US. It was not until 1881, when Ben's
son, Charles S. Peirce, reprinted it in the _American Journal of
Mathematics_ [5], that the paper became well-known. See also [6].
A few references:
[1] Archibald, Raymond Clare (1875-1957):
"Benjamin Peirce, 1809-1880: Biographical Sketch and Bibliography", with
reminiscences by Charles W. Eliot, A. Lawrence Lowell, W. E. Byerly,
and Arnold B. Chace, published by O. Oberlin, The Mathematical
Association of America, iv, 30 pages 1925. Originally published in
the _American Mathematical Monthly_, January, 1925. The MAA issued
it in separate form, with four new portraits and additional notes.
[2] See also:
"Benjamin Peirce: 'Father of Pure Mathematics' in America", edited by
Bernard Cohen, and published in New York by Arno Press, 191 pages, 1980.
[3] Peirce, Benjamin (1809-1880):
"Linear associative algebra", published by BP himself in Washington
City, 153 pages, 1870.
[4] Grattan-Guinness, Ivor:
"The Norton History of the Mathematical Sciences: The Rainbow of
Mathematics", New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company, 817 pages,
first US edition 1998.
[5] Benjamin Peirce, "Linear Associative Algebra", _American Journal of
Mathematics_, vol. IV, p. 97, 1881, notes and addenda by C.S. Peirce.
[6] Peirce, Benjamin (1809-1880):
"Linear Associative Algebra: new edition, with addenda and notes by
C.S. Peirce", New York: van Nostrand, 133 pages, 1882. Extracted from
the _American Journal of Mathematics_.
Further reading:
[7] Pycior, Helena M.:
"Benjamin Peirce's 'Linear Associative Algebra'", _Isis_, vol. 70, no. 254,
pp. 537-551, 1979.
[8] Grattan-Guinness, Ivor:
"Benjamin Peirce's Linear Associative Algebra (1870): New Light on its
Preparation and 'Publication'", _Annals of Science_, vol 54, pp.597-606,
1997.
With best regards,
Julio