Scientist; born in
Salem, Mass., April 4, 1809; graduated at Harvard College in 1829; became tutor in mathematics there in 1831, and from 1842 to 1867 was
Perkins Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics, and was also consulting astronomer to
The Ephemcris and Nautical almanac from its establishment in 1849.
Dr. Peirce was a pupil of
Dr. Bowditch's, and read the proof-sheets of his translation of the
Mecanique Celeste.
In September, 1867, he was appointed superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, which post he held until his death in
Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 6, 1880.
He was a member of leading scientific societies at home and abroad; an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society of
London, 1842; member of the Royal Society of
London, 1852; president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1853; and one of the scientific council that established the
Dudley Observatory at
Albany, N. Y., in 1855.
Dr. Peirce published many scientific essays; and in 1851 discovered and announced the fluidity of Saturn's rings.
