The Life and Work of George Boole: A Prelude to the Digital Age

412 Pages·2014·5.19 MB·English

by  Desmond MacHale

The Life and Work of George Boole
A PRELUDE TO THE DIGITAL AGE
The Life and Work of George Boole
A PRELUDE TO THE DIGITAL AGE
Desmond MacHale
First published in 1985 by
Boole Press Limited This edition published in 2014 by
Cork University Press
Youngline Industrial Estate
Pouladuff Road, Togher
Cork, Ireland © Desmond MacHale 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any electronic, mechanical or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording or otherwise, without either the prior written permission
of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying in
Ireland issued by the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd,
25 Denzille Lane, Dublin 2.
The right of Desmond MacHale to be identified as author of this Work
has been asserted by him in accordance with Copyright and Related
Rights Acts 2000 to 2007.
NEW EDITION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The publishers, Cork University Press, and the author, Desmond MacHale, wish
to express their sincere thanks to Professor John Miller of Boole Press,
publisher of the first edition of this book, for his generosity and cooperation
in the publication of this second edition.
We would also like to sincerely thank President Michael Murphy of
University College Cork and Mr Brian McCarthy of FEXCO
for their support.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78205-004-9
Typeset by Tower Books, Ballincollig, Co. Cork
Printed in Malta by Gutenberg Press
Contents
List of Illustrations
Milestones in Boole’s Life
Acknowledgements
Preface to new edition
Foreword to 1985 edition by J.L. Synge
Foreword to new edition
Chapter 1 Early Life
Chapter 2 His Own Master
Chapter 3 Social Involvement
Chapter 4 Early Mathematical Work
Chapter 5 The Cork Professorship
Chapter 6 Queen’s College Cork
Chapter 7 Love and Marriage
Chapter 8 The Cuvierian Society
Chapter 9 The Laws of Thought
Chapter 10 Controversy
Chapter 11 Family Life and Social Attitudes
Chapter 12 Poetry
Chapter 13 Boole and Hamilton: Some Unanswered Questions
Chapter 14 Religion
Chapter 15 Later Mathematical Work
Chapter 16 The Final Years
Chapter 17 The Remarkable Boole Family
Bibliography of Boole’s Published Works
Sources and References
Index
List of Illustrations
The Boole Family Tree
No. 3 Potter Gate, Lincoln, one of Boole’s schools
Portrait of Boole as a young man
Queen’s College, Cork
The opening of Queen’s College, Cork, in 1849
Mary Everest Boole as a young woman
Sir Robert Kane, FRS
Lichfield Cottage, Ballintemple, Cork, home of the Boole family from 1862 to
1864
Three of Boole’s daughters
A sample of George Boole’s handwriting
Sir William Rowan Hamilton
Photograph of Boole, taken shortly before his death
A flattering portrait of Boole, drawn shortly after his death
The burning of the western wing of Queen’s College, Cork, in 1862
Mary Everest Boole in later life
The Boole Memorial Window in University College, Cork
The panel of the Memorial Window, showing Boole at work
The Boole Library, University College, Cork, opened in September 1984
Professor Tadhg O’Ciarda, late President of University College Cork, unveils
a memorial plaque on Boole’s final place of residence
George Boole’s family: Mary Boole (seated), their five daughters (standing)
and some grandchildren, circa 1900
Alicia Boole, the mathematician
Alicia Boole holding some of her grandchildren
Alicia Boole’s polytopes 297 Sir G.I. Taylor. FRS, Boole’s grandson,
unveiling a plaque to Boole at his Potter Gate school in Lincoln
Lucy Everest Boole, the chemist
Mary Hinton Boole
Howard Everest Hinton, FRS, Boole’s great grandson
Ethel Lilian Boole, the novelist
Milestones in Boole’s Life
1815 Born in Lincoln
1830 Published first poems
1831 First teaching post
1831 First studied mathematics
1834 Opened his own school
1835 First major public address, later published
1841 First mathematical publication
1844 Awarded Gold Medal for mathematics by the Royal Society
1847 First book, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, published
1849 Appointed Professor of Mathematics at Queen’s College, Cork
1851 Elected Dean of the Science Division of the Faculty of Arts
1851 First honorary degree, LL.D., from Trinity College, Dublin
1854 Second book, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, published
1854 Elected President of the Cuvierian Society
1855 Married Mary Everest
1856 First daughter, Mary Ellen, born
1857 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society
1857 Won the Keith Prize
1858 Second daughter, Margaret, born
1859 Third book, Differential Equations, published
1860 Fourth book, Finite Differences, published
1862 Fourth daughter, Lucy Everest, born
1864 Fifth daughter, Ethel Lilian, born
1864 Died in Cork
Acknowledgements to
1985 edition
This book, the first full-length biography of George Boole, was begun in
1974 as a result of discovering some letters of Boole’s in the archives of
University College Cork. Very many people have helped me in my
investigations into Boole’s life and work and I should like to express my sincere
thanks to the following in particular:
My colleagues at University College Cork, especially the President, Dr T. O
Ciardha; the Registrar, Professor M. Mortell; the Finance Officer and Secretary,
Mr M.F. Kelleher, and their staffs; Professor P.D. Barry; Professor F. Holland;
Professor M.C. Sexton; Professor Sean Lucy; Professor Patrick O’Regan; the
late Professor M.J. O’Kelly; Professor M.A. MacConaill; Professor H. St J.
Atkins; Dr S.F. Pettit; Dr S. Vernon; Dr N. Ó Murchadha; Dr G. Barden; Dr
Patrick Cronin; Mr F. Dorr; Mr R. Studdert; Mrs Mary Conroy; Mr Tim
O’Leary; Mr Edwin McCarthy; Mr Ambrose Nestor; Mr Tony Perrott; and Mr
Donal Counihan.
To the Librarian, Mr Patrick Quigg, and his staff, I owe a special debt,
especially to Ms Beatrice Doran, Ms Nora Brown, Mr Henry Ryan, Mr Max
McCarthy, Mr Jimmy Murphy and Ms Finola O’Donovan.
Boole’s descendants and other relatives and their agents have been
exceptionally helpful and generous both in giving me access to facts, documents
and other material in their possession and in giving me permission to reproduce
letters, photographs and extracts from Boole’s works. In particular, I should like
to express my sincere gratitude to Miss Gabrielle Boole of London; Mrs M.
Hinton and the late Professor H.E. Hinton, FRS, of Bristol and their family for
their generosity and hospitality; The Rev. Mr R.H.P. Boole of Lincoln; Professor
G.K. Batchelor of the University of Cambridge and Miss Gladys Davies, in
connection with the estate and papers of Sir G.I. Taylor, FRS.
To the following libraries, institutions, public offices and companies, I am
deeply indebted for information, photocopied documents and permission to
reproduce letters and other works: Cork City Library; Cork County Library;
Library of Trinity College, Dublin; Public Record Office of Ireland; Library of
Trinity College, Cambridge; Bodleian Library, Oxford; Archives of Trinity
College, Dublin; Cambridge Philosophical Society; Library of the Royal
Society; Lincolnshire Central Library (Local History Collection); Cork
Examiner; Cork Evening Echo; Lincolnshire Echo; State Papers Office, Dublin
Castle; Cambridge University Library; Archives Department, Victoria Library,
City of Westminster; Registration Office, Cork; RCB Library of the Church of
Ireland, Dublin; Library of University College, London (Boole – De Morgan
Correspondence); St Andrew’s University Library; Library of the Royal Irish
Academy; Library of the Royal Dublin Society; Library of the British Museum;
Library of the University of London; C.W. Daniel and Company, Essex; British
Newspaper Library; Cork University Press; Lincolnshire Archives Council;
Boole Archive, University College Cork; and The Embassy of the USSR,
Dublin.
In addition, I wish to thank the following individuals all of whom have helped
me in various ways: Mr Calvin Jongsma; Professor Theodore Hailperin; Mr
Laurence Elvin; Mr G. Layton; Mrs E. Whittingham; Dr N.T. Gridgeman; Dr
John Dubbey; Miss Denise Waltham; Professor G.L. Huxley; Dr Edwin Owen,
Bishop of Killaloe; Professor J.L. Synge; Canon J.L. Salter; Dr Perdue, Bishop
of Cork; Rev. J.D. and Mrs Hutchinson; Mr and Mrs S.T.S. Harman; Rev. Eric
Akers Perry; Mr Rush Rhees; Professor H.S.M. Coxeter; Mr Frank Corr;
Professor A.J. McConnell; Mr and Mrs G.Y. Goldberg; Dr Donal Caird, former
Bishop of Limerick; Mrs Brigid Dolan; Rev. John Dennis; Mrs Sheila
O’Riordan; Mr W. O’Sullivan; Mr N.H. Robinson and his staff; Mr M.C.
Griffith; Mr M.B. Smith; Mr Seán Bohan and his staff; the late Mr P. Ó Maidín
and his staff, especially Ms Ann Barry; Mr Walter McGrath; Mr C.J.F.
McCarthy; Ms Joy Robinson; Professor T. Hankins; Mrs Elizabeth Melrose; Dr
Charles Mollan; Dr I. Grattan-Guinness; the late Sir Francis Hill; Mr Donald
Crispie; Lt. Col. Sir Benjamin Bromhead and Lady Bromhead; Professor Harry
Goheen; Dr L. Laita; Mr Peter Gryce and Mrs Jane Gryce; Mr and Mrs John
MacHale; Mr Michael McGann; Miss Margaret MacSweeney; Mr T.F.
Shepherd; Dr Diarmuid Ó Mathúna; Captain Seán Feehan; Mr Séamus Ó
Buachalla; Mr and Mrs D. Terry; and Mr Finbarr O’Connell.
I am very grateful to Uninversity College Cork, the Council of the Royal Irish
Academy, and the Irish National Board for Science and Technology, without
whose financial help I could not have written this book.
Finally, a word of praise for my typist, Una Sheehan, to whom I tender my