Educated at University College, London, Jevons studied chemistry and botany. Because of financial difficulties in the family, he left college in 1854 to take a well-paying job as an assayer for the Australian Mint in Sydney. While in Australia, he became interested in political economy and in 1859 returned to England to finish his degree. He received his Master's Degree in 1863. He then taught at Owens College (which became the University of Manchester) and in 1865 took a part-time professorship at Queen's College, Liverpool. In 1866, he was appointed to the chair in political economy at Manchester. He also took a professorship in logic and mental & moral philosophy. In 1864, he published Pure Logic and in 1871 . In 1872, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1876, he returned to teach at University College, but resigned in 1880 to concentrate on his writing. Having suffered from ill health for a number of years, he drowned while swimming on holiday in the south of England, presumably because of a heart-attack or stroke while in the water. One of Jevons' more interesting conceptions was the 'logical piano', a machine with 21 keys for performing operations in equational logic which he introduced in Pure Logic. Some of the features of this device were later incorporated in modern computer design. His other works include The Coal Question (1865), Principles of Science (1874), Money and the Mechanism of Exchange (1875) and The Solar Period and the Price of Corn (1875). |
Chrysoma Associates Limited
