Who was Jacob Green?
Jacob Green MD (Penn – 1806) was a Professor of Chemistry, Experimental and Natural Philosophy at Princeton College from 1818 – 1822. Prof. Green was the son of Princeton’s President, Ashbel Green. President Ashbel Green left Princeton at the same time – and it seems that the end of President Green’s term was connected to his son’s forced exit. The position of Professor of Natural Philosophy was filled by Prof. John Maclean Jr in 1822. (Maclean would later become Princeton’s President after Carnahan) Prof. Jacob Green continued teaching Chemistry and Natural Philosophy at Jefferson College in Canonsburg PA (now Washington & Jefferson College) and he later became one of founders of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He was a professor of chemistry at the Jefferson Medical College from 1825-1841. Green wrote a textbook on electromagnetism in 1827. Joseph Henry mentions this textbook in his first publication in the Transactions of the Albany Institute in 1827. Green studied Law in Albany during this period and was a friend of Dr. Beck, the principal of Albany Academy where Joseph Henry was teaching. Green is also mentioned in Henry’s 1831 publication in Silliman’s Journal concerning the first electromagnetic machine, a rocking-beam electric motor. Green and Henry exchanged letters during the time that Henry was a Professor of Natural Philosophy at Princeton College 1832 – 1848.