Pliny Earle Chase (18 August 1820 in Worcester, Massachusetts – 17 December 1886 in Haverford, Pennsylvania) was an American scientist, mathematician, and educator who contributed to the fields of astronomy, electromagnetism, and cryptography, among others.
[1] He graduated at Harvard in 1839, then taught in Philadelphia and engaged in business for many years, but employed his leisure in physical and philological studies.
[2][3] In 1864 the Magellanic gold medal of the American Philosophical Society was awarded him for his Numerical Relations of Gravity and Magnetism.
In 1871 he became a member of the faculty of Haverford College, Pennsylvania, and for a long time was professor of philosophy and logic.
His sister Lucy Chase (1822–1909) was a noted abolitionist, supporter of women's suffrage and the temperance movement, and teacher in contraband camps and freedman schools in the American South.