Greenfield, Mass., the first and most successful manual-labor school in the country. From 1837 till 1840 he was principal of the Ogdensburg, N. Y., academy, and while there he began his investi- gations in meteOirology. In 1840 he was elected a tutor in Williams, and erected an observatoiy upon the Grreylock peak of Saddle mountain, at a height of nearly 4,000 feet above the ocean, where continu- ous observations were taken by a self-registering anemometer which he devised. From 1843 till 184(3 he was principal of the Noi-walk, Conn., acad- emy, and then was elected to the chair of mathe- matics and astronomy in Lafayette college. Fast- en, Pa., where he remained until his death. Prof. Coffin's reputation depends chiefly upon his work in meteorology. In 1853 he announced before the American association for the advancement of sci- ence his theory of atmospheric circulation, includ- ing the principle, quoted in Europe since 1860 as " Buys-Ballot's Law." Besides the numerous val- uable papers pulilished in the transactions and proceedings of the societies of which he was a member, there appeared among the publications of the Smithsonian institution " Winds of the Northern Hemisphere " (1853) ; " Psychrometrical Tables " (1856); " The Orbit and Phenomena of a Meteoric Fire Ball " (1869) ; and " The Winds of the Globe, or the Laws of Atmospheric Circula- tion over the Surface of the Earth " (1875). The two large quarto volumes of the " Results of Me- teorological Observations for 1854r-'9 " were ed- ited for the Smithsonian institution by him. He also published " Exercises in Book-keeping " and "Key" (Greenfield, 1835); "Elements of Conic Sections and Analytical Geometry" (New York. 1849); "Key" (1854); and "Solar and Lunar Eclipses" (1845). Prof. Coffin was one of the early members of the National academy of scien- ces, "and a sketch of his life by Arnold Guyot appears in the " Biographical Memoirs of the Na- tional Academy of Sciences " (Washington, 1877). See also " Life " by John C. Clyde (Easton, 1882).— His son, Selden Jennings, educator, b. in Og- densburg, N. Y., 3 Aug., 1838, was graduated at Lafayette in 1858, and at Princeton theological seminary in 1864. During the same year he be- came connected with Lafayette college, where he has held the offices of tutor and adjunct professor of mathematics. On the death of his father in 1873 he became professor of mathematics and astronomy, and in 1874 was ordained by the pres- bytery of Lehigh. In 1876 he was commissioned by the state of Pennsylvania to secure the " col- lege exhibits " for the educational building at the Centennial exhibition. Prof. Coffin has served on various committees of the American association for the advancement of science, and has been a frequent contributor to the scientific journals of articles on meteorology. Besides minor biographi- cal pamphlets, he has published " Record of the Men of Lafayette" (Easton, 1879). and revised "Olmsted's Astronomy" (New York, 1882). He has also completed " The Winds of the Globe " (Washington, 1875), written by his father, said to be the largest collection of numerical tables ever published in the United States.
COFFIN, Robert Barry, author, b. in Hudson,
N. Y., 21 July, 1826; d. in Fordham, New York
city, 10 June, 1886. lie was seventh in line of de-
scent from Tristram, and his great-grandfather,
Alexander Coffin, was one of the original proprie-
tors of Hudson. He became fond of books at an
early age, spending his savings for them, and at
the "age of ten owned a small library. He spent
several years at the collegiate institute in Pougli-
keepsie, N. Y., and soon began to contribute anony-
mously to various journals. In 1845 he became
book-keeper in an importing house in New York
city, but left on account of failing health in 1849,
and in 1852 opened a book-store with his brother
in Elmira, N. Y. He studied divinity in 1854, in-
tending to take orders in the Protestant Episcopal
church, and at this time was a contributor to the
"Churchman." He went to New York again in
1857, and in 1858 succeeded T. B. Aldrich as assist-
ant editor of the " Home Journal," to which he
had contributed since 1849, becoming at the same
time art critic for the " Evening Post." He was
appointed a clerk in the auditor's department of
the New York custom-house in April, 1863, and re-
tained the office till the winter before his death,
with the exception of the years from 1869 till 1875.
He edited " The Table," a monthly publication de-
voted to gastronomy, in 1873, and from 1882 till
1886 contributed regularly on the same subject to
the " Caterer," a Philadelphia magazine. Mr. Cof-
fin's humorous sketches, pulilished in various pe-
riodicals over the signature of " Barry Gray," have
been widely read. In 1881 he delivered some
verses at the reunion of the Coffin family in Nan-
tucket. He published " My Married Life at Hill-
side " and " Matrimonial Infelicities " (New York,
1865) ; " Out of Town : A Rural Episode " (1866) ;
" Cakes and Ale at Woodbine " (1868) ; " Castles in
the Air and other Phantasies " (1871) ; and " The
Home of Cooper " (1872). He left a completed book
in manuscript.
COFFIN, Robert Stevenson, poet, b. in Brunswick, Me., 14 July, 1797; d. in Rowley, Mass., 7 May, 1827. Plis father, Ebenezer Coffin, was a minister in Brunswick. Robert removed with his father to Newburyport, became a printer there, and afterward worked at his trade in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. He served as a sailor in the war of 1812, and was once a prisoner on board a British frigate. He began to write poetry early in life, and printed it in the papers on which he was employed over the signature of " The Boston Bard." Becoming intemperate, he was found in sickness and poverty in New York in 1826, and sent by some benevolent ladies to his family in Massachu-
setts, where he died. He published an autobiography (1825) and " The Oriental Harp : Poems of the Boston Bard " (Providence, R. I., 1826). Among the more notable verses in this book are " On Presenting a Lady with a Cake of Soap," " To a Mouse which Took Lodgings with the Author in a Public House near the Park, New York," and " A Large
Nose and an Old Coat."
COFFIN, Roland Folger, sailor, b. in BrookIyn, N. Y., 8 March. 1826; d. on Shelter island,. N. Y., 17 July, 1888. He was educated in Nantucket, Mass., and Brooklyn. Much of his youth was passed in the former place, and he went to sea, as most of liis family had done for generations. He was captain of the ship " Senator " from 1850 till 1860, when he became an acting master in the U. S. navy, and served as such, mostly in the North Atlantic blockading squadron during the civil war, until 1863. In his hours off duty at sea he learned and practised short-hand writing. He
became a reporter for the " World " newspaper in New York in 1869, and soon began to publish a series of short sea-stories entitled " An Old Sailor's Yarns." These attracted attention and gave him a name in literature. He was also the regular reporter of marine news and of yachting, and in this latter department was for many years the most expert writer connected with the New York press. Two volumes of "An Old Sailor's Yarns" have
