[HM] origin of the term "curl"

Jeff Miller (JeffM@sanctum.com)
Sat, 26 Sep 1998 15:56:10 EST

On the webpage listing earliest known uses of mathematical words, I had
indicated that Maxwell coined the term "curl" since he wrote "I propose
(with great diffidence) to call the vector part...the curl" in 1873 in A
Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. However, I see in a calculus
textbook that Maxwell wrote a letter to Tait on Nov. 7, 1870, in which he
wrote "so for Cayley's sake I might say Curl (after the fashion of Scroll)."

Was Scroll a person to whom he was attributing the term, and if so, who was he?

Thank you in advance,
Jeff Miller

http://members.aol.com/jeff570/a-f.html
has a bit more of the letter to Tait