return to America, he began campaigning for a cleanup of the life insurance business, by requiring insurers to pay “surrender values” to policyholders on request and to hold adequate reserves to do so. Wright realized how easy it was to for insurance carriers to cheat, so he devised formulas for calculating the reserves and created statutory capital requirements for the industry. Ultimately, the life insurance industry accepted Wright's reforms. Wright served as an insurance commissioner for the State of Massachusetts from 1858 to 1866. He devised a new formula for finding the values of policies of various terms, known as the “accumulation formula,” and, in order to facilitate his work, invented and afterward patented (1869) the “arithmeter,” a mechanical contrivance for multiplication and division, based on the logarithmic principle, a form of cylindrical slide rule. Public parks Wright, a member of the Forestry Association, was instrumental in obtaining the Massachusetts Forestry Act of 1882. He initiated and promoted plans for making Middlesex Fells, an area north of Boston bordering Malden and Melrose, into a public park; although he did not succeed during his lifetime, the plan was carried out later and Middlesex Fells is Middlesex Fells Reservation to this day. Other activities Wright served as an officer of the National Liberal League. Along with his rationalist approach to insurance and religion, Wright was an ardent advocate of a phonetic writing system he called "phonotypy." A column written in this system appeared in almost every issue of his newspaper, the Chronotype (1846-1850). Writings La Fontaine, Fables (verse translation, 2 vols. 8vo, Boston, 1841; 2nd ed., New York, 1859) John Greenleaf Whittier, Ballads, and other Poems (introduction, London, 1844) A Curiosity of Law (1866) Savings Banks Life Insurance (1872) The Politics and Mysteries of Life Insurance (1873) Myron Holley, and what he did for Liberty and True Religion (1882) In addition, he wrote many pamphlets and reports. Notes References Attribution Further reading Wright, Philip Green and Elizabeth Quincy, Elizur Wright, the Father of modern Life Insurance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937. Stearns, Frank Preston, "Elizur Wright" in Cambridge Sketches, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1905, pp. 286–308. External links The Fables of La Fontaine, translated by Elizur Wright; Project Gutenberg text. Cambridge Sketches by Frank Preston Stearns; has a section on Elizur Wright. Actuary Hall of Fame contains a brief account of Wright's life. Insurance Hall of Fame laureate page on Elizur Wright