James, an optician of note, was born in Edinburgh on the 22d of June, in the year 1710. After spending two years at Heriot's Hospital, he, at the age of twelve, was removed to the High School, where he showed a considerable taste for classical literature. In 1726 he entered the university, and took his master's degree with distinction. He had been fortunate enough to have the celebrated Maclaurin for his preceptor, who having soon discovered the bent of his genius, and made a proper estimate of the extent of his capacity, encouraged him to prosecute those studies in which nature had qualified him to make the greatest figure. Under the eye of that eminent master, he began in 1732 to construct Gregorian telescopes, in which he attained to great perfection. In the year 1736 Short was called to London, at the desire of Queen Caroline, to give instructions in mathematics to the Duke of Cumberland; and immediately on his appointment to that honourable office he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and patronised by the Earls of Morton and Macclesfield. He made numerous telescopes, during his residence in London, of great magnifying power. He died on the 15th of June 1768, at Newington Butts, near London, in his fifty-eighth year.