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Alexander McAulay
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Alexander McAulay (9 December 1863 – 6 July 1931) was the first professor of mathematics and physics at the University of
Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania. He was also a proponent of dual quaternions, which he termed "octonions" or "Clifford
biquaternions".
Alexander McAulay

Born 9 December 1863

Died 6 July 1931(aged 67)

Alma mater University of Cambridge

University of Manchester

Known for Work on quaternions

Scientific career

Fields Mathematics and physics

Institutions University of Tasmania

University of Melbourne

Doctoral advisor Ernest Rutherford

Doctoral students Neville Ronsley Parsons

Notes

He is the brother of Francis Macaulay.

McAulay was born on 9 December 1863 and attended Kingswood School in Bath. He proceeded to Caius College, Cambridge,
there taking up a study of the quaternion algebra. In 1883 he published an article "Some general theorems in quaternion
integration".[1] McAulay took his degree in 1886,[2] and began to reflect on the instruction of students in quaternion theory. In an
article "Establishment of the fundamental properties of quaternions" [3] he suggested improvements to the texts then in use. He
also wrote a technical article[4] on integration.
Departing for Australia, he lectured at Ormond College, University of Melbourne from 1893 to 1895. As a distant correspondent,
he participated in a vigorous debate about the place of quaternions in physics education.[5] In 1893 his book Utility of
Quaternions in Physics was published. A. S. Hathaway contributed a positive review[6] and Peter Guthrie Tait praised it in these
terms:
Here, at last, we exclaim, is a man who has caught the full spirit of the quaternion system: the real aestus, the awen of
the Welsh Bards, the divinus afflatus that transports the poet beyond the limits of sublunary things! Intuitively
recognizing its power, he snatches up the magnificent weapon which Hamilton tenders us all, and at once dashes off to
the jungle on the quest of big game.[7]
McAulay took up the position of Professor of Physics in Tasmania from 1896 until 1929, at which time his son Alexander
Leicester McAulay took over the position for the next thirty years.
Following William Kingdon Clifford who had extended quaternions to dual quaternions, McAulay made a special study of
this hypercomplex number system. In 1898 McAulay published, through Cambridge University Press, his Octonions: a
Development of Clifford's Biquaternions.
McAulay died on 6 July 1931. His brother Francis Macaulay, who stayed in England, also contributed to ring theory. The
University of Tasmania has commemorated the McAulays' contributions in Winter Public Lectures.[8]
WorksEdit
 1893: Utility of Quaternions in Physics, link from Project Gutenberg.
 1898: Octonions: a development of Clifford's Biquaternions, link from Internet Archive
 1900: "Notes on the Electromagnetic Theory of Light", Philosophical Magazine 49(5):228–242.

ReferencesEdit
1. ^ A. McAulay (1883) Messenger of Mathematics 13:26 to 37
2. ^ "McAulay, Alexander (FML883A)".  A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. ^ McAulay (1888) Messenger of Mathematics 18:131 to 136
4. ^ A. McAulay (1888) "The transformation of multiple surface integrals into multiple line integrals", Messenger of
Mathematics 18:139 to 45
5. ^ M.J. Crowe (1967) A History of Vector Analysis, U. Notre Dame Press. Chapter 6 details McAulay's four
contributions in 1893 and 94 to the debate on vectors and quaternions.
6. ^ A. S. Hathaway (1894) Review:  Utility of Quaternions in Physics, Bulletin of the American Mathematical
Society 3(8):179–85
7. ^ PG Tait (1893) Nature 28 December
8. ^ University of Tasmania: McAulay Public Lectures archived from 2007-06-13

 Rev N. M. Ferres (1892), Review of "On the Mathematical Theory of Electromagnetism", in Proceedings of the Royal
Society, London, v.51,p. 400
 Rev N. M. Ferres (1895) Preview of  Octonions, Proceedings of the Royal Society 59: 169, weblink from Archive.org.

External linksEdit
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Alexander MacAulay
 Bruce Scott (1986) McAulay, Alexander (1863 – 1931) from Australian Dictionary of Biography.
 Works by Alexander McAulay at Project Gutenberg
 Works by or about Alexander McAulay at Internet Archive

Last edited 6 months ago by Rathfelder

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