George Salmon

George Salmon (September 25, 1819 - January 22, 1904) was an Irish mathematician and theologian.

Salmon was an algebraic geometer and discovered, with Cayley, the 27 lines on the cubic surface. He worked at Trinity College Dublin, was a contemporary of Hamilton and MacCullage, he was also provost of the College and achieve long term notoriety through his strong opposition to women students (although he finally acquiesced to it).

George Salmon was born in Cork, Ireland to father Michael Salmon, whom was a linen merchant while his mother was Helen Weekes, the daughter of the Reverend Edward Weekes. Michael and Helen Salmon had four children; George being their only son.

George attended Mr Porter's school in his home town of Cork, in the south of Ireland, and then entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1833. He studied mathematics and classics at Trinity, winning a classics scholarship in 1837, and graduating with the best First Class degree in mathematics in 1838.

In 1844 George Salmon married Frances Anne Salvador (d. 1878), daughter of the Rev. J. L. Salvador, and he lived with his family for forty years at 81 Wellington Road, Dublin. He had four sons and two daughters, but some died in infancy or early adulthood, and only his eldest son Edward Salmon and younger daughter Fanny Salmon survived him.

After 1874 he had reached a point where he felt he likely had little to add to math. From here on most of his writing concerns theology. These concerned the nature of the Church of Ireland, eternal punishment, and whether miracles existed. He eventually became chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Bibliography

A treatise on conic sections (1848)
A treatise on higher plane curves: Intended as a sequel to a treatise on conic sections (1852)
Lessons introductory to the modern higher algebra (1859)
A treatise on the analytic geometry of three dimensions (1862)
The eternity of future punishment (1864)
The reign of law (1873)
Non-miraculous Christianity (1881)
Introduction to the New Testament (1885)
The infallibility of the Church (1889)
Thoughts on the textual criticism of the New Testament (1897)

External links

O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "George Salmon", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
George Salmon: from mathematics to theology, by Sarah Nesbitt, University of St Andrews)