mathematics

Nathan Daboll

Nathan Daboll is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nathan Daboll rather than just read about it. In short: Nathan Daboll (May 5 1750 [O.S. April 24, 1750] – March 9, 1818) was an American teacher who wrote the mathematics textbook most commonly used in American schools in the first half of the 19th century.

Key takeaways

Nathan Daboll belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nathan Daboll to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nathan Daboll from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nathan Daboll (May 5 1750 [O.S. April 24, 1750] – March 9, 1818) was an American teacher who wrote the mathematics textbook most commonly used in American schools in the first half of the 19th century. During the course of his career, he also operated a popular navigation school for merchant mariners, and published a variety of almanacs during the American Revolution period.

Early years Born in Groton, Connecticut, Daboll was the son of Nathan Daboll (born c. 1725 in East Hampton, New York; died c. 1780) and Anna Lynn (born 1724 in Groton). He had two brothers, John (born 1755) and Benjamin (1757–1848), and two sisters Susannah (born 1748) and Amy (born 1764). Daboll's father was born with the surname Dibble, but changed it to Daboll. Daboll's grandfather was born with the surname Dibble (sometimes spelled Deble). Daboll had little formal education but mastered mathematics quickly while earning a living as a cooper.

Career Daboll's early career was that of a teacher. He taught mathematics at the Academic School in Plainfield, Connecticut. Because of Daboll's ability with mathematics, Samuel M. Green, an early almanac publisher in the colonies, asked Daboll to calculate almanac entries. Daboll did so, beginning in 1771, under the alias "Edmund Freebetter", before switching to publishing almanacs and registers under his own name. Almanacs were useful instruments in propaganda wars during the American Revolution. Some of Daboll's almanacs contained satirical or factual political commentary, while others didn't. For the most part, they contained common almanac material:

"lunations; eclipses of the luminaries; aspects; judgment of the weather; rising, sitting and southing of the seven stars; sun and moon's rising and sitting; festivals, and other remarkable days; courts; roads"

The textbook Daboll's schoolmaster's assistant: being a plain, practical system of arithmetic, adapted to the United States was published in 1799, and updated with Daboll's Schoolmaster's assistant, improved and enlarged being a plain practical system of arithmetic: adapted to the United States in 1814. Its popularity was based, in part, on its practicality:

"We were taught arithmetic in Daboll, then a new book, and which, being adapted to our measures of length, weight, and currency was a prodigious leap over the head of poor old Dilworth, whose rules and examples were modelled upon English customs."

Daboll was also quite notable for his maritime navigation school in New London, Connecticut where he taught navigation and nautical astronomy to as many as 1,500 seamen. In 1811, at the invitation of Commodore John Rodgers, Daboll instructed midshipmen on the frigate President. Daboll's Practical Navigator was published posthumously in 1820 by his long-time colleague Green. Even after his death, Daboll was remembered for his mathematics. Herman Melville referred to Daboll in his 1851 novel Moby-Dick:

"I'll get the almanac and as I have heard devils can be raised with Daboll's arithmetic, I'll try my hand at raising a meaning out of these queer curvicues here with the Massachusetts calendar."

In his 1890 book The teaching and history of mathematics in the United States, mathematics historian Florian Cajori described Daboll as one of the "three great arithmeticians in America".

Personal life Daboll married his first cousin, Elizabeth Daboll (1742–1813), around 1778. They had a daughter, Lydia (born c. 1782), and a son, also named Nathan (1780–1863). A grandson, Celadon Leeds Daboll, invented the Daboll trumpet. Daboll died in Groton in 1818.

Works

Books Cajori, F. (1890). The teaching and history of mathematics in the United States. Washington: Govt. Print. Off.

Daboll's schoolmaster's assistant: being a plain, practical system of arithmetic, adapted to the United States, New-London, Conn.: Cady & Eells, for S. Green, 1799 Daboll's Schoolmaster's assistant, improved and enlarged being a plain practical system of arithmetic : adapted to the United States., New-London, Conn.: Samuel Green, 1814, OCLC 15437427, Internet Archives Daboll's practical navigator:: being a concise, easy, and comprehensive system of navigation; calculated for the daily use of seamen, and also for an assistant to the teacher: containing plane, traverse, parallel, middle latitude, and Mercator's sailing; with all the necessary tables. : Concise rules are given, with a variety of examples in every part of common navigation; also, a new, scientific, and very short method of correcting the dead reckoning; with rules for keeping a complete reckoning at sea, applied to practice, and exemplified in three separate journals, in which may be seen all the varieties which can probably happen in a ship's reckoning., New-London, Conn.: Samuel Green, 1820, OCLC 191273862

Almanacs Annual Connecticut register, OCLC 198434239 Bickerstaff's Boston almanack, OCLC 62806539 Bickerstaff's Connecticut almanack, OCLC 62825132 Bickerstaff's genuine almanack, OCLC 55836404 Bickerstaff's improved : being an almanack, OCLC 55836631 Bickerstaff's New-England almanack, OCLC 71190499 Connecticut Almanack, OCLC 55831696 Connecticut Register, OCLC 15455240 Connecticut, Rhode-Island, Massachusetts, New-Hampshire & Vermont farmers almanac, OCLC 207230450 Farmer's almanack, OCLC 55828277 Father Abraham's New-England almanack, OCLC 55824875 Freebetter's Connecticut Almanack, OCLC 38023321 Freebetter's New-England Almanack, OCLC 55840855 Green's register for the state of Connecticut with an almanack, OCLC 55813717 New-England almanack, and gentleman's and lady's diary, OCLC 55836032 Phillips's United States diary, or An almanack, OCLC 55810514 Rhode-Island almanack, OCLC 207546345 Register for the state of Connecticut: with an almanack, OCLC 62835748 Strong's astronomical diary, calendar or, almanack, OCLC 55817806 Thomas's Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode-Island, New-Hampshire and Vermont almanack, OCLC 55829175 Town & country almanack, OCLC 55828051 Weatherwise's Town And Country Almanack, OCLC 55826226 Wheeler's North-American calendar, and Rhode-Island almanack, OCLC 191272979 Wheeler's North-American calendar, or An almanack, OCLC 55817672 Wheeler's North-American calendar, or An almanack, for the year of our Lord 1791

References

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Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nathan Daboll

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nathan Daboll claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nathan Daboll before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nathan Daboll ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nathan Daboll

In research: Nathan Daboll appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nathan Daboll in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nathan Daboll is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1750 births, 1818 deaths, 18th-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nathan Daboll outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nathan Daboll in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nathan Daboll means in your own words.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Nathan Daboll in simple terms?

Why does Nathan Daboll matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nathan Daboll?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nathan Daboll.