Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Alexander, Stephen
ALEXANDER, Stephen, LL.D., born at Schenectady, New York, September 1, 1806. He graduated at Union College, in 1824; and in 1834 was elected Adjunct Professor of Mathematics in the College of New Jersey. In 1840 the Professorship of Astronomy was created, and he was assigned to it. In 1845 he was transferred to the chair of Mathematics, but in 1854 exchanged it for the Professorship of Mechanics and Astronomy, which he retained until he was retired in 1878. He has published numerous papers on astronomy, mathematics, physics, &c., which have attracted the attention of eminent astronomers in Europe and America. Among these are:—"Physical Phenomena attendant upon Solar Eclipses," "Fundamental Principles of Mathematics," "On the Origin of the Forms and the present Condition of some of the Clusters of Stars," and "Harmonies in the Arrangement of the Solar System which seem to be confirmatory of the Nebular Theory of La Place." He has conducted two expeditions to make observations on solar eclipses, one to Labrador in July, 1860, and one to the West, to observe the solar eclipse of August, 1869.