James MacCullagh

James MacCullagh (1809 – 24 October, 1847) was an Irish mathematician.

Born in Landahaussy, near Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland, he was a fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a contemporary there of William Rowan Hamilton. Although he worked mostly on optics, he is best remembered for his work on geometry; he published his most significant work "On surfaces of the second order" in 1843.

In "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher", Charles Babbage wrote that MacCullagh was "an excellent friend of mine" and discussed the benefits and drawbacks of the analytical engine with him.

MacCullagh died in Dublin at his own hand, perhaps depressed by what he saw as the decline of his mathematical powers.

External links

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* James MacCullagh's [http://www.archive.org/details/collectedworks00maccuoft Collected works] at the Internet Archive