Record

Authorised form of nameSmith; Henry John Stephen (1826 - 1883); mathematician
Dates1826 - 1883
NationalityBritish
Place of birthDublin, Ireland
Date of birth02 November 1826
Place of deathOxford
Date of death09 February 1883
Dates and placesBurial:
St Sepulchre's cemetery, Oxford, England (19 September 1883).
Occupationmathematician
Research fieldMathematics
ActivityEducation:
Early education received at home; private tuition (1838-1841); Rugby School (1841), Balliol College, Oxford. BA (1850), MA (1855)
Career:
Fellow, Balliol College (1849); Lecturer in Mathematics, Balliol College (1850); Savilian Professor of Geometry, Oxford University (1861); Keeper of the University Museum, Oxford (1874); died at home of an abscess of the liver (1882).
Memberships:
FRAS (1861)
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election06/06/1861
Age at election35
ProposerJames Joseph Sylvester
Heny Wentworth Acland
Robert Main
Charles Daubeny
Richard Greswell
John Phillips
Benjamin Collins Brodie, Junior
Bartholomew Price
John Lubbock
Royal Society activityRoyal Society roles:
VP 1877-1878
RelationshipsParents: John Smith, barrister, and Mary, daughter of John Murphy; named after his father's tutor, Henry John Stephen.
Published worksRCN R63888
General contextKnown for his work on elementary divisors, quadratic forms, and the Smith–Minkowski–Siegel mass formula in number theory.
First to discover the Cantor set.
His mathematical papers were collected and edited by James Glaisher and, prefaced by biographical reminiscences, an posthumously published in 1894.
Related imagesDiscover a selection of related images in our picture library
SourcesSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB
References:
Edmund J Bowen, 'The Balliol-Trinity Laboratories, Oxford 1853-1940' in NR 1970 vol 25 pp 227-236
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/54231117
Royal Society codeNA6491
Archives associated with this Fellow
Reference numberTitleDate
EC/1861/14Smith, Henry John Stephen: certificate of election to the Royal Society
S/0020Sculpture bust of Smith, Henry John Stephen1883
RR/7/212Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the contact of surfaces' by William Spottiswoode7 November 1872
RR/5/43Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'A second memoir on skew surfaces, otherwise scrolls' by Arthur Cayley12 September 1864
RR/4/243Referee's report by William Spottiswoode, on a paper 'On systems of linear indeterminate equations and congruences' by Henry John Stephen Smith12 April 1861
RR/5/40Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On skew surfaces, otherwise scrolls' by Arthur Cayley28 April 1863
RR/5/224Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the calculus of symbols.—Third memoir' by William Henry Leighton Russell14 October 1863
RR/6/273Referee's report by Arthur Cayley, on a paper 'On the orders and genera of ternary quadratic forms' by Henry John Stephen Smith8 May 1867
RR/6/66Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'A third memoir on skew surfaces, otherwise scrolls' by Arthur Cayley17 August 1868
RR/6/64Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on two papers 'A memoir on the theory of reciprocal surfaces' and 'A memoir on cubic surfaces' by Arthur Cayley5 May 1869
RR/7/40Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the mechanical performance of logical inference' by William Stanley Jevons28 July 1870
RR/6/69Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the conditions for the existence of three equal roots, or of two pairs of equal roots, of a binary quartic or quintic' by Arthur Cayley21 April 1868
RR/7/14Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'A memoir on abstract geometry' by Arthur Cayley25 January 1870
RR/7/85Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the problem of the in-and-circumscribed triangle' by Arthur Cayley23 May 1871
RR/7/82Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On cyclides and sphero-quartics' by John Casey21 August 1871
RR/7/291Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'A memoir on the transformation of elliptic functions' by Arthur Cayley18 April 1874
RR/9/29Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'Memoir on the Theta-functions, particularly those of two variables' by Andrew Russell Forsyth5 June 1882
RR/7/372Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On a class of identical relations in the theory of elliptic functions' by by James Whitbread Lee Glaisher11 May 1875
RR/8/7Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On a new form of tangential equation' by John Casey18 April 1877
RR/8/344Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the forty-eight coordinates of a cubic curve in space' by William Spottiswoode23 March 1881
RR/9/70Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On a class of invariants' by John Christian Malet5 June 1882
RR/8/307Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On Riccati's equation and its transformations, and on some definite integrals which satisfy them' by James Whitbread Lee Glaisher14 September 1881
RR/5/201Note by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On Fermat's theorem of the polygonal numbers. —Second communication' by Jonathan Frederick Pollock[1863]
RR/7/390Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the theory of the solution of a system of simultaneous non-linear partial differential equations of the first order' by E J Nanson21 August 1875
MS/427/110Copy letter from [Thomas Henry] Huxley, Secretary of the Royal Society; to the Secretary of the H. M. Treasury17 June 1881
MS/427/259Copy letter from [William] Spottiswoode, President of the Royal Society; to the Secretary of the Treasury17 February 1883
MS/427/266Copy letter from [Michael] Foster, Secretary of the Royal Society; to the Secretary of the Treasury15 March 1883
RR/8/252Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'Memoir on Abel's theorem' by R C Rowe, with an 'Addition to Mr Rowe's paper' by Arthur Cayley27 September 1880
RR/5/188Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On a new geometry of space' by Julius Plücker28 March 1865
RR/6/274Referee's report by Thomas Archer Hirst, on a paper 'On the orders and genera of ternary quadratic forms' by Henry John Stephen Smith14 March 1867
RR/8/218Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'A Memoir on the Single and Double Theta-Functions' by Arthur Cayley13 March 1880
RR/5/226Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the calculus of symbols.— Fifth memoir. With applications to linear partial differential equations, and the calculus of functions' by William Henry Leighton Russell22 June 1864
RR/6/235Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the mysteries of numbers alluded to by Fermat.—Second communication' by Sir Jonathan Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet23 July 1868
RR/8/82Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'A tenth memoir on quantics' by Arthur Cayley7 September 1878
RR/8/305Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'Formulae for sn 8u, cn 8u, dn 8u, in terms of sn u' by Ernest H Glaisher14 September 1881
PT/63/15Paper, 'On systems of linear indeterminate equations and congruences' by Henry J [John] Stephen SmithDecember 1860
RR/7/226Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On curvature and orthogonal surfaces' by Arthur Cayley17 May 1873
RR/4/199Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On Fermat's theorem of the polygonal numbers' by Frederick Pollock31 August 1861
RR/4/242Referee's report by Arthur Cayley, on a paper 'On systems of linear indeterminate equations and congruences' by Henry John Stephen Smith28 March 1861
RR/5/237Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the distribution of surfaces of the third order into species, reference to the absence or presence of singular points, and the reality of their lines' by Ludwig Schläfli18 February 1863
RR/5/25Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the differential equations which determine the form of the roots of algebraic equations' by George Boole12 September 1864
RR/5/268Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'Algebraical researches, containing a disquisition on Newton’s rule for the discovery of imaginary roots, and an allied rule applicable to a particular class of equations, together with a complete invariantive determination of the character of the roots of the general equation of the fifth degree, &c' by James Joseph Sylvester25 May 1864
RR/6/63Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the conditions for the existence of three equal roots, or of two pairs of equal roots, of a binary quartic or quintic' by Arthur Cayley27 April 1868
RR/5/46Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the sextactic points of a plane curve' by Arthur Cayley30 March 1865
MC/7/98Letter from Henry J S [John Stephen] Smith, Savilian Professor of geometry, University of Oxford, Balliol College, Oxford, to General [Edward] Sabine, President of the Royal Society15 June 1864
RR/6/59Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on two papers 'On the curves which satisfy given conditions' and 'Second memoir on the curves which satisfy given conditions; the principle of correspondence' by Arthur Cayley4 September 1867
MC/7Volume 7 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1864-1866
RR/5/190Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On Fermat's theorem of the polygonal numbers. —Second communication' by Jonathan Frederick Pollock6 September 1862
RR/5/199Second referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On Fermat's theorem of the polygonal numbers. —Second communication' by Jonathan Frederick Pollock31 May [1863]
RR/8/81Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'Addition to memoir on the transformation of elliptic functions' by Arthur Cayley17 April 1878
MC/11/184Letter from Henry J S [John Stephen] Smith, Meteorological Office, 116 Victoria Street, London, to Sir Joseph [Dalton] Hooker, President of the Royal Society15 March 1878
MC/11/185Letter from Henry J S [John Stephen] Smith, Meteorological Office, 116 Victoria Street, London, to [Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker], President of the Royal Society15 March 1878
MC/11/229Letter from Henry J S [John Stephen] Smith, Chairman of the Meteorological Council, Meteorological Office, 116 Victoria Street, London, to the Secretary of the Royal Society27 June 1878
MC/11/321Letter from Henry J S [John Stephen] Smith, Meteorological Office, 116 Victoria Street, London, to W [William] Spottiswoode, President of the Royal Society24 March 1879
MC/11/388Letter from Henry J S [John Stephen] Smith, Chairman of the Meteorological Council, Meteorological Office, 116 Victoria Street, London, to the Secretary of the Royal Society19 June 1879
MC/11Volume 11 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1877-1879
MS/427/263Copy letter from [Michael] Foster, Secretary of the Royal Society; to [Robert Henry] Scott17 February 1883
RR/6/114Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'Second memoir on plane stigmatics' by Alexander John Ellis8 September 1866
RR/6/234Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the mysteries of numbers alluded to by Fermat' by Sir Jonathan Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet8 September 1866
RR/7/73Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the values of the Integral 1 0 Qn Qn' dµ, Qn, Qn' being Laplace's coefficients of the orders n, n', with an application to the theory of radiation' by John William Strutt13 August 1870
RR/6/236Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith and Bartholomew Price, on a paper 'On the mysteries of numbers alluded to by Fermat.—Second communication' by Sir Jonathan Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronetnd [1868]
RR/8/66Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On hyperjacobian surfaces and curves' by William Spottiswoode14 June 1877
AP/62/2Unpublished paper, 'On a uniform rotation machine and on the theory of electromagnetic tuning forks' by R H M [Robert Holford Macdowall] Bosanquet1882
RR/5/194Memorandum by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On Fermat’s theorem of the polygonal numbers, with supplement' by Jonathan Frederick Pollock12 November 1863
RR/5/225Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the calculus of symbols.— Fourth memoir. With applications to the theory of non-linear differential equations' by William Henry Leighton Russell10 April 1864
MC/14/16Letter from Professor [Thomas] Fowler, Oxford, to [Michael] Foster, [Secretary of the Royal Society]4 February 1885
RR/5/23Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On the differential equations of dynamics. A sequel to a paper on simultaneous differential equations' by George Boole20 May 1863
RR/5/67Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'Introductory memoir on plane stigmatics' by Alexander John Ellis14 September 1865
RR/5/68Letter by Henry John Stephen Smith, to George Gabriel Stokes, regarding a paper 'Introductory memoir on plane stigmatics' by Alexander John Ellis15 September 1865
RR/5/191Referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On Fermat’s theorem of the polygonal numbers, with supplement' by Jonathan Frederick Pollock14 October 1863
RR/5/193Second referee's report by Henry John Stephen Smith, on a paper 'On Fermat’s theorem of the polygonal numbers, with supplement' by Jonathan Frederick Pollock10 November 1863
MS/427/412Copy letter from [Michael] Foster, Secretary of the Royal Society; to Prof. Fowler, Corpus Christie College, Oxford19 February 1885
MC/14Volume 14 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1885-1888
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