How G. B. Halsted contributed to the international recognition of János Bolyai and Nikolai Lobachevsky

Hogyan járult hozzá G. B. Halsted Bolyai János és Nyikolaj Lobacsevszkij nemzetközi elismertségéhez

Abstract

George Bruce Halsted was born on November 23, 1853, in Newark, New Jersey, USA as son of Adela Meeker and Oliver Spencer Halsted. His father was a lawyer. Halsted studied at Princeton University, as did his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He completed his bachelor's degree in 1875 and his master's degree in 1878. He received his doctorate in 1879 from Johns Hopkins University with his thesis Basis for a Dual Logic. In the meantime, he also studied in Berlin. He remained an intern at Princeton for a time and then taught mathematics at the University of Texas from 1884 to 1903. It was during this time that his professional work was completed. Despite his eccentric behavior, he was a popular teacher among his students. He studied, explained and translated into English the works of Lobachevsky, János Bolyai, Saccheri and Poincaré.
After a clash with the university management over a teacher competition when hiring a candidate with better connections rather than the more talented one, he had to leave the university. He then taught in several places: St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland (1903); Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio (1903–1906) and Colorado State Teachers' College, Greeley (1906–1912). He then retired, continuing to study mathematics while working as an electrician in the family business. He died March 16, 1922, in New York. He was mourned by his wife, Margaret Swearingen (whom he married in 1886) and his three sons. The fact that this genius mathematician and noble-minded man ended his life as an electrician reminds us of the words of the Hungarian poet, János Batsányi, which can be found on the memorial plaque of his former residential building in Linz:
“The present can be envious and ungrateful,
but the future will be fair. ”

Kivonat

George Bruce Halsted 1853. november 23-án született a Newarkban, New Jersey államban, az Egyesült Államokban. 1879-ben doktorált a Johns Hopkins Egyetemen, disszertációjával "A duális logika alapjai". Időközben Berlinben is tanult. Egy ideig gyakornokoskodott Princetonban, majd 1884 és 1903 között matematikát tanított a Texasi Egyetemen. Ebben az időben fejezte be szakmai munkáját. Tanulmányozta, magyarázta és angolra fordította Lobacsevszkij, Bolyai János, Saccheri és Poincaré műveit. Összetűzésbe került az egyetem vezetésével egy tanári pályázat miatt, az egyetemet elhagyva több helyen is tanított: a St. John's College-ban, Annapolisban, Marylandben (1903); a Kenyon College-ban, Gambierben, Ohioban (1903–1906) és a Colorado State Teachers' College-ban, Greeleyben (1906–1912). Ezután nyugdíjba vonult, és folytatta a matematika tanulmányait, miközben villanyszerelőként dolgozott a családi vállalkozásban. 1922. március 16-án hunyt el New Yorkban. Felesége, Margaret Swearingen (akivel 1886-ban házasodott) és három fia gyászolta. Az a tény, hogy ez a zseniális matematikus és nemes gondolkodású ember villanyszerelőként fejezte be életét, Batsányi János magyar költő szavaira emlékeztet, amelyek linzi egykori lakóházának emléktábláján találhatók:

„A jelen irigy és hálátlan lehet, de a jövő igazságos lesz.”

^{*This paper is a translation  with some additions from Hungarian of a paper presented at the 16th Conference of History of Sciences and Techniques, Aiud, Romania, 2022, pp. 35–40. https://ojs.emt.ro/TTK/article/view/971}