Warren Colburn, the eminent American mathematician, was born in Dedham,
Mass., March 1, 1793.
He was the eldest son of a large family of children. His parents were
poor, and "Warren" was, during his childhood, frequently employed in
different manufacturing establishments to aid the family by his small
earnings.
In early boyhood he manifested an unusual taste for mathematics, and
in the common district school was regarded as remarkable in this
department. He learned the trade of a machinist, studying winters, until
he was over twenty-two years of age, when he began to fit for Harvard
College, which he entered in 1817 and graduated with high honors in
1820. He taught school in the winter months, while in college, in
Boston, Leominster, and in Canton, Mass. From 1820 to 1823 he taught a
select school in Boston.
While in college he was regarded as by far the best mathematician in his
class, and during this period thought there was the necessity for such a
book as his "First Lessons in Intellectual Arithmetic." This conviction
had been forced upon his mind by his experience in teaching. In the
autumn of 1821 he published his "first edition." His plan was well
digested, although he was accustomed to say that "the pupils who were
under his tuition made his arithmetic for him;" that the questions they
asked and the necessary answers and explanations which he gave in reply
were embodied in the book, which has had a sale unprecedented for
any book on elementary arithmetic in the world, having reached over
2,000,000 copies in this country, and the sale still continues, both in
this country and in Great Britain. It has been translated into most of
the European languages and by missionaries into many Asiatic languages.
After teaching in Boston about two and one-half years, he was chosen
superintendent of the Boston Manufacturing Company's works at Waltham,
Mass., and accepted the position; and in August, 1824, owing to the
mechanical genius he displayed in applying power to machinery, combined
with his great administrative ability, he was appointed superintendent
of the Lowell Merrimac Manufacturing Co., at Lowell, Mass. Here he
projected a system of lectures of an instructive character, presenting
commerce and useful subjects in such a way as to gain attention and
enlighten the people.
For several years he delivered gratuitous lectures on the Natural
History of Animals, Light, Electricity, the Seasons, Hydraulics,
Eclipses, etc. His knowledge of machinery enabled him admirably to
illustrate these lectures by models of his own construction; and his
successful experiments and simple teaching added much to the practical
knowledge of his operatives.
He proposed to occupy the space between the common schools and the
college halls by carrying, so far as might be practicable, the design of
the Rumford Lectures of Harvard into the community of the actual workers
of common life.
In the mean time he discharged his official duties efficiently, and the
superintendence of the schools of Lowell was also added to his labors.
He never relinquished, during these busy years, the design formed in his
college days of furnishing to the children of the country a series of
text-books on the _inductive plan_ in mathematics.
His "Algebra upon the Inductive Method of Instruction," appeared in
1825, and his "Sequel to Intellectual Arithmetic" in 1836. He regarded
the "Sequel" as a book of more merit and importance than the "First
Lessons."
He also published a series of selections from Miss Edgeworth's stories,
in a suitable form for reading exercises for the younger classes of
the Lowell schools, in the use of which the teachers were carefully
instructed.
In May, 1827, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of
Sciences. For several years he was a member of the Examining Committee
for Mathematics at Harvard College.
He was a member of the Superintending School Committee of Lowell; and so
busy were he and his coworkers that they were repeatedly obliged to hold
their meetings at six o'clock in the morning.
Warren Colburn was ardently admired--almost revered--by the teachers who
were trained to use his "Inductive Methods of Instruction" in teaching
elementary mathematics.
In personal appearance Mr. Colburn was decidedly pleasing. His height
was five feet ten, and his figure was well proportioned. His face
was one not to be forgotten; it indicated sweetness of disposition,
benevolence, intelligence, and refinement. His mental operations were
not rapid, and it was only by great patience and long continued thought
that he achieved his objects. He was not fluent in conversation; his
hesitancy of speech, however, was not so great when with friends as
with strangers. The tendency of his mind was toward the practical in
knowledge; his study was to simplify science, and to make it accessible
to common minds.
Mr. Colburn will live in educational history as the author of "Warren
Colburn's First Lessons," one of the very best books ever written, and
which, for a quarter of a century, was in almost universal use as a
text-book in the best common schools, not only in the primary and
intermediate grades, but also in the grammar school classes.
In accordance with the method of this famous book, the pupils were
taught in a natural way, a knowledge of the fundamental principles of
arithmetic. By its use they developed the ability to solve mentally and
with great facility all of the simple questions likely to occur in the
every day business of common life.
Undoubtedly Pestalozzi first conceived the idea of the true "inductive
method" of teaching numbers; but it was Mr. Colburn who adapted it to
the needs of the children of the common elementary schools. It has
wrought a great change in teaching, and placed Warren Colburn on the
roll as one of the educational benefactors of his age.
He died at Lowell, Mass., Sept. 13, 1883, at the age of 90
years.--_Journal of Education_.
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