Lardner

Lardner, Dionysius (1793-1859), projector and editor of Lardner's Encyclopaedia, was the son of a Dublin solicitor. After a distinguished course at Trinity College, where he took the law degrees in 1827, he was ordained. In the year of his graduation, however, he removed to London, having been appointed to the chair of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in London University. He then began the Cyclopcedia, which was finished in 1849. He himself wrote the chief mathematical articles, and among the other contributors were Mackintosh, De Morgan, Thirlwall, John Forster, Tom Moore, and Sismondi. Between 1845 and 1849 he made large sums by lecturing in the United States; but from that year till his death lived in Paris. He is usually credited with the prediction that ocean steam navigation would be found impossible.