missioned captain. See his “Letters,” edited and arranged by his sister, with a sketch of his life by Com. George E. Belknap (Concord, N. H., 1886).
PERKINS, George Henry, naturalist, b. in
East Cambridge, Mass., 25 Sept., 1844. He was
graduated at Yale in 1867, and in 1869 received the
degree of Ph. D. there for post-graduate studies. In
1869 he was elected to the chair of natural history
in the University of Vermont, which appointment
he has since filled, and for several years he has held
also the office of state entomologist of Vermont.
Prof. Perkins has devoted considerable study to
the archaeology of the Champlain valley, concerning
which he has written numerous articles for
periodicals and the transactions of scientific
societies, of which he is a member. He has also
lectured on natural history with success in various
places. Besides technical papers in scientific journals,
he has published, under the authority of the
state of Vermont, reports “On the Injurious Insects
of Vermont” (3 vols., 1876-'7-'8); “More Important
Parasites infesting Man and the Lower Animals”
(1880); and “The Flora of Vermont” (1882).
PERKINS, George Roberts, mathematician,
b. in Otsego county, N. Y., 3 May, 1812 ; d. in New
Hartford, Conn., 22 Aug., 1876. He was self-edu-
cated, and at the age of eighteen was employed in
the slackwater survey of the Susquehanna river.
He was a teacher of mathematics in Clinton, N. Y.,
from 1831 till 1838, when he became principal of
Utica academy. On the opening of the New York
state normal school in 1844 he was chosen professor
of mathematics there, and in 1848 he became prin-
cipal, which post he resigned in 1852 on being as-
signed to superintend the erection of the Dudley
observatory. In 1858-'62 he was deputy state en-
gineer, and in the latter year he was elected a
regent of the university of the state. His works
had a wide circulation, and some of them were
translated into Spanish. They include •' Higher
Arithmetic " (New York, 1841)'; "Treatise on Al-
gebra" (1841); "Elements of Algebra" (1844);
"Elements of Geometry" (1847); "Trigonometry
and Surveying " (1851); "Plane and Solid Geom-
etry " (1854) ; also a text-book on astronomy. He
contributed many articles to the scientific journals.
PERKINS, (iranville, artist, b. in Baltimore,
]Md., 16 Oct., 1830 ; d. in New York city, 18 April,
1895. He studied drawing and painting, and for
several years he devoted himself mainly to scene-
painting, finding employment in Richmond, Va.,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. He began
working for the illustrated papers about 1851, and
in 1855 took a post on " Frank Leslie's Weekly."
About 1860 he was engaged by Harper Brothers,
with whom he remained for several years. He fur-
nished a large number of illustrations for books,
his specialty being marine views, and became wide-
ly known through his excellent work in that di-
rection. He exhibited frequently at the National
academy since 1862, and at the exhibitions of the
Water-color society, of which he was a member.
PERKINS, Jacob, inventor, b. in Newburyport,
Mass., 9 July, 1766; d. in London. England, 30
July, 1849. In childhood he was apprenticed to a
goldsmith, and at the age of fifteen he carried on
the business of a goldsmith in his native town, and
invented a method of plating shoe-buckles. When
he was about twenty-one years of age he was em-
ployed by the state of Massachusetts to make dies
for copper coinage, and three years afterward he
invented a machine for cutting and heading nails
at one operation. Through the mismanagement of
his partners he was at this time involved in great
pecuniary distress. He made great improvements
in bank-note engraving by substituting steel for
copper plates. After residing for some time in
Boston and in New York, he removed to Philadel-
phia in 1814, and became associated with a firm of
bank-note engravers. In 1818 he went to England,
accompanied by Mr. Fairman and several work-
men, and obtained a conti-act for supplying the
Bank of Ireland with plates. He carriecl on his
business extensively for many years in London,
and was employed in perfecting engines and ma-
chines to be worked by steam-power. He origi-
nated a process for transferring engravings from
one steel plate to another, an instrument called the
bathometer, to measure the depth of water, and
the pleometer, to mark with precision the speed at
which a vessel moves through the water. He con-
structed a gun in which steam, generated at an
enormous pressure, was used for propulsion in-
stead of gunpowder, and with it passed balls
through eleven planks of the hardest deal, each an
inch thick, placed some distance apart. With a
pressure of only 65 atmospheres he penetrated an
iron plate a quarter of an inch thick. He also
screwed to a gun-barrel a tube filled with balls,
which, falling into the barrel, were discharged at
the rate of nearly 1,000 a minute.
PERKINS, James Breck, author, b. in St.
Croix Falls, Wis., 4 Nov., 1847. He was graduated
at Rochester university in 1867, admitted to the
bar in 1868, and was city attorney of Rochester in
1874-'8. He has contributed to periodicals, and
has published " France under Richelieu and Maza-
rin " (2 vols.. New York, 1886).
PERKINS, Jonathan Cogswell, author, b. in
Ipswich, Mass., 21 Nov., 1809 ; d. in Salem, Mass.,
12 Dec, 1877. He was graduated at Amherst in
1842, studied law in the office of Ruf us Choate at
Salem and at Harvard law-school, and was ad-
mitted to the bar in 1835. He practised success-
fully at Salem for thirteen years, when he became
judge of the court of common pleas of Massachu-
setts. He served in the state senate in 1846-'8, and
was an able and voluminous commentator and
writer on law subjects. He edited Chitty's " Crimi-
nal Law" (3 vols., Boston, 1836); Chitty on "Con-
tracts " (1839) ; Jarman on "Wills" (1845); Abbot
on " Shipping " (1846) ; DanielFs " Chancerv Prac-
tice" (3 vols.. 1846); Collver on " Partner.-<hip"
(1848) ; Angell on " Water Courses " (1869) ; Pick-
ering's "Reports," vols. ii. to x. ; and wrote "Arbi-
trations and Awards." He also assisted in editing
" Digest of Decisions of the Courts of Common
Law and Admiralty " (6 vols., 1854-'6).
PERKINS, Joseph, capitalist, b. in Warren,
Trumbull co., Ohio, 5 Julv, 1819 ; d. in Saratoga
Springs. N. Y., 26 Aug., 1885. His father was in
1798 appointed by the Erie land company agent
and surveyor for their lands on the Western Re-
serve, and acted in that capacity till 1844, accumu-
lating a large property. The son was graduated at
Marietta college in 1839, and entered his father's
office, taking entire charge of his estate at the lat-
ter's death five years later. He removed to Cleve-
land in 1852, aiid did much to build uj) tliat city.
He became president of the National bank of com-
merce, and was identified with a large number of
business and benevolent institutions, acquiring a
reputation for probity and benevolence. One of
his favorite charities was the Protestant orphan
asylum of Cleveland. He was its founder, and for
many years its president and principal benefactor.
PERKINS, Justin, missionary, b, in West Springfield, Mass., 12 March, 1805 ;" d. in Chicopee, Mass. 31 Dec, 1869. Until his eighteenth year he lived on his father's farm, but, desiring to qualify
