12 Facts About Denison Olmsted

Denison Olmsted was an American physicist and astronomer.

Professor Olmsted is credited with giving birth to meteor science after the 1833 Leonid meteor shower over North America spurred him to study this phenomenon.

Denison Olmsted traveled by horseback across the state collecting minerals and fossils, publishing his geological map in 1825.

Denison Olmsted published an elaborate theory of hail-stones in 1830, which caused much discussion, but finally received the general approbation of meteorologists.

Denison Olmsted appears to have been the earliest person to use the word radiator to mean a heating appliance in a patent of 1834 when he wrote that it was a peculiar kind of apparatus, which I call a radiator.

Denison Olmsted possessed considerable mechanical talent, which he used in promoting and perfecting the inventions of others, but while he himself frequently invented articles of convenience and comfort, such as the Denison Olmsted stove, he seldom secured his rights by patents.

Denison Olmsted died in New Haven, Connecticut, on May 13,1859.

Denison Olmsted wrote textbooks on Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, and these sold well.

Denison Olmsted wrote some biographical sketches, one of which became among the most influential writings on Eli Whitney.

Denison Olmsted said workers used their fingers to separate seed from cotton, whereas others said roller gins were widely used.

Meanwhile, authors writing more broadly about the southern United States elaborated on Denison Olmsted's ideas, treating the cotton gin as a symbol of nineteenth century prosperity or of the evils of slavery.

Denison Olmsted's son Alexander Fisher Olmsted was a professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina.