ATKINSON, Edward, economist, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, 10 February 1827. His education was obtained principally at private schools, and his reputation has been made by the numerous pamphlets and papers that he has contributed to current literature on economic topics. The subjects treated embrace such general topics as banking, competition, cotton, free trade, mechanical arts, and protection. The most important of his addresses are "Banking," delivered at Saratoga in 1880 before the American Bankers' Association ; "Insufficiency of Economic Legislation," delivered before the American Social Science Association ; "What makes the Rate of Wages," before the British Association for the Advancement of Science; address to the chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics at their convention in Boston in 1885; ,vice-presidential address on the "Application of Science to the Production and Consumption of Food," before the American association for the advancement of science, in 1885; and "Prevention of Loss by Fire," before the millers of the west, in 1885. His pamphlets and books include the following :" Cheap Cotton by Free Labor" (Boston, 1861) ; "The Collection of Revenue "(1866) ; "Argument for the Conditional Reform of the Legal-Tender Act" (1874) ; "Our National Domain" (1879); "Labor and Capital*Allies, not Enemies" (New York, 1880) ; "The Fire Engineer, the Architect, and the Underwriter" (Boston, 1880); "The Railroads of the United States" (1880) ; "Cotton Manufacturers of the United States" (1880) ; "Addresses at Atlanta, Georgia, on the International Exposition" (New York, 1881) ; "What is a Bank?" (1881) ; "Right Methods of Preventing Fires in Mills" (Boston, 1881) ; "The Railway and the Farmer" (New York, 1881) ; "The Influence of Boston Capital upon Manufactures," in "Memorial History of Boston" (Boston, 1882) ; and "The Distribution of Products" (New York, 1885). In 1886 he began the preparation of a series of monographs on economic questions for periodical publication. Through his efforts was established the Boston manufacturers' mutual fire insurance company, an association consisting of a number of manufacturers who, for their mutual protection, adopted rules and regulations for the economical and judicious management of their plants. He has invented an improved cooking-stove, called the "Aladdin Cooker."