Died: 23 December 1890

Edward Sang, mathematician, engineer and actuary, was the 6^th of 11 children of Edward Sang (1771-1862), nurseryman and sometime Provost of Kirkcaldy, and his wife Jean Nicol (b.1773) a relative of William Nicol (b.1770) who invented the Nicol prism. He attended a subscription school, founded by his father and others, under a gifted headmaster Edward Irving. At Edinburgh University during 1818 - 1824, he impressed professors William Wallace and John Leslie in mathematics and natural philosophy, despite periods of illness. Small for his age, he was first mocked by fellow-students, then admired for his precocious talent.

Sang first worked in Edinburgh as surveyor, civil engineer and mathematics teacher and lectured on natural philosophy. During 1841-43 he was Professor of Mechanical Sciences at the nonconformist Manchester New College, then went to Constantinople to establish engineering schools, plan railways and an ironworks. He lectured (in Turkish) at the Imperial School, Muhendis-hana Berii and gained fame by predicting the solar eclipse of 1847, thereby dispelling superstition. He resigned against the Sultan's wishes, returning to Edinburgh in 1854 to teach mathematics.

An active Fellow of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he received awards from both and from the Institution of Civil Engineers, London (1879). He was a founder member and first official lecturer of the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland, a corresponding member of the Royal Tunis Academy, an Ll.D. of Edinburgh University and an honorary member of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. He married Isabella Elmslie in 1832 and had at least three daughters and at least one son.

Books:

1. A R Davidson, The History of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland 1856-1956 (1956).

Articles:

1. Anon. (possibly C G Knott), Dr Edward Sang's Logarithmic, Trigonometrical, and Astronomical Tables, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1907-8), 183-196.
2. D Bruce Peebles, Edward Sang (with list of writings), Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (Obituary Notices), 21 (1897), xvii-xxxii.
3. A D D Craik, Edward Sang (1805-1890): calculator extraordinary. British Soc. for the History of Mathematics Newsletter 45 (Spring 2002), 32-45.
4. A D D Craik, The logarithmic tables of Edward Sang and his daughters . Historia Mathematica 30 (2003), 47-84 .
5. Edward Sang MSS and related papers, The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, Acc. 10780. (89 volumes/items of tables, correspondence etc., previously held by the Royal Society of Edinburgh).
6. Edward Sang MSS, Edinburgh University Library 40 vols. Gen. 310-349.
7. C G Knott, Edward Sang and his logarithmic calculations, in C G Knott (ed.), Napier Tercentenary Memorial Volume (1915), 261-268.
8. Microfiche Index of Old Parish Records (Scotland).
9. W Swan, Presidential Address for 1882, Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts XI (1887), 1-7.
10. The Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers 1800-1900.
11. C D Waterston, Notes on portraits in oils, busts and statuettes, the property of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, displayed in the rooms of the Society, The Royal Society of Edinburgh Yearbook (1994), 83-117.

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