Loomis, Elias, 1811–89, American physicist and mathematician, b. Willington, Conn., grad. Yale, 1830. He taught at Western Reserve (1837–44), at New York Univ. (1844–47, 1849–60), and at Yale (from 1860). He established an observatory at Western Reserve and while there developed the type of weather map that was later used by the U.S. Weather Bureau. He also made astronomical and magnetic observations for the government; his studies of auroras recognized that displays in the Northern Hemiphere were often accompanied by corresponding displays in the Southern Hemisphere. Loomis wrote several mathematics textbooks.
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