DOCSLIB.ORG

Mary Everest Boole: the First Mathematical Psychologist

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Mary Everest Boole: the First Mathematical Psychologist Mary Everest Boole: the first mathematical psychologist Edmund F Robertson University of St Andrews 1. Introduction Mary Everest Boole was only 32 years old in 1864 when her husband, the mathematician George Boole, died leaving her with five daughters to bring up. In this paper we will look at Mary Boole's life and her contributions to mathematics teaching. She published many books on teaching in general and teaching mathematics in particular, for example Lectures on the Logic of Arithmetic (1903) and Philosophy and Fun of Algebra (1909). We give quotes from her books to illustrate her ideas which, although over 100 years old, seem surprisingly relevant today. 2. Early life Mary Everest was the daughter of Reverend Thomas Roupell Everest (1800- 1855), Rector of Wickwar, and Mary Ryall (born 1815). Thomas Everest had one brother, George Everest (1790-1866), who was the surveyor and geographer after whom Mount Everest was named. Mary Ryall had a brother John Ryall who became Vice President and Professor of Greek at Queen's College, Cork. After Mary Everest married George Boole she became known as Mary Everest Boole. For simplicity, we shall refer to her as Mary Boole throughout this paper. She had a brother, George John Everest (1835-1908) who became vicar of Teynham in Kent. Thomas Everest had studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge and was ordained in 1826. He was a priest at Bristol Cathedral before becoming rector of Wickwar, near Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire, in 1830. On 27 September 1830 he married Mary Ryall; their daughter Mary (the subject of this paper) was born on 11 March 1832 and their son George in 1835. In 1837 an influenza epidemic swept through England leaving Thomas Everest as an invalid. Being a strong believer in homeopathy, he went with his family to Poissy, near Paris, in France in 1837 to be treated by Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of the homoeopathic system of medicine, leaving his curate in charge of the church at Wickwar. Mary Boole was at this time five years old but she had to follow the same routine as Hahnemann devised for the whole family (as well as their servants) which included cold baths, long fast walks before breakfast and a special diet. By 1843 Thomas Everest was well enough to return to his church at Wickwar, but the family maintained the routine devised for them by Hahnemann for eleven years. Whether Thomas Everest recovered because of Hahnemann's treatment or in spite of Hahnemann's treatment is a matter of opinion but certainly the whole family had great faith in the homoeopathic approach. While in France, Mary Boole became bilingual in French and English. In fact, in later life she considered French her native tongue. She attended school as well as being tutored by a governess. Her mother also gave her lessons which she later described as "hopelessly dreary." Later, while still in France, she was tutored by a Monsieur Deplace who impressed her with his teaching methods. When teaching her to solve arithmetic problems he would ask a series of questions, then ask her to analyse her answers so that she eventually found the solution to the original problem herself. At age ten, when still in France, Mary Boole heard her father speaking with a friend who was visiting from England. The friend spoke about the University of Cambridge being a great centre for mathematics and spoke, in particular, about Charles Babbage. After the friend left, Mary heard her father talking to her mother saying he didn't know what he would do with his children since his son lacked interest in education as he would expect of a girl, but his daughter had the educational interests and abilities he would expect of a boy. "If only she could go to Cambridge and study mathematics she would carry everything before her," he said, "but what could a girl do learning mathematics." Mary was shocked to learn that she couldn't go to university, that she couldn't study mathematics and that she would never meet the famous Charles Babbage. A year later the family were back in England. Mary Boole couldn't go to university but she could learn mathematics by teaching herself from books. She met many of her father's friends and these included John Herschel and Charles Babbage. This provided her with further motivation to read mathematics books. She attended school for a short time but soon was taken out of education to become an assistant to her father. She had some practical teaching experience taking the Sunday School class as well as writing experience helping her father with his sermons. In December 1843 Mary Boole's uncle, George Everest, returned from India. He had undertaken much work there for the Great Trigonometrical Survey and was knowledgeable about mathematics. He also had many fascinating tales to tell of his travels in India while carrying out the surveys. George Everest spent many hours with Mary, encouraging her and telling her about his experiences. George Everest enjoyed his discussions with Mary so much that at one time he even asked her father if he couldn't adopt her, but this was not what her parents wanted. 3. George Boole In 1850 Mary visited her uncle John Ryall at Queen's College, Cork. There she met the professor of mathematics, George Boole, and despite the age difference (she was eighteen years old and he was thirty-five) they became friends. George Boole helped Mary with some of the more challenging aspects of the differential calculus and after she returned to England they corresponded frequently, much of the letters being about mathematics and science. In 1852 George Boole visited the Everest family home in Wickwar and at this time he became more formally her mathematics tutor. On 15 June 1855 Mary's father died leaving her without means of support and George Boole proposed marriage. After a short engagement, they married on 11 September 1855 at a small ceremony in Wickwar. The lived at first in Sundays Well Road, Cork, then in Castle Road, Blackrock, Cork, before moving to Litchfield Cottage, Ballintemple, Cork. It proved a very happy marriage with five daughters: Mary Ellen Boole born in 1856, Margaret Boole born in 1858, Alicia Boole (later Alicia Boole Stott) born in 1860, Lucy Everest Boole born in 1862, and Ethel Lilian Boole born in 1864. George Boole died on 8 December 1864 with his daughter Ethel Lilian less than seven months old; she had been born on 11 May 1864. Mary Boole was only 32 years old, having five young daughters and no means of support. 4. Mary returns to England Mary Boole moved back to England where, thanks to Frederick Denison Maurice, she was offered the position as a librarian at Queen's College, London. She lived at 43 Harley Street, London and from that address she corresponded with Charles Darwin in December 1866 about the implications for his theory of evolution on religion. Mary gave a series of talks to young mothers who were worried about their religion being threatened by Darwin’s theories and used her talks as the basis for a book The message of psychic science to mothers and nurses which she completed in 1868 but it was only published in 1883. At the time of the 1871 census Mary was at the home of her unmarried uncle Robert Everest in Sunninghill, Berkshire, while her children remained at Harley Street, London. Mary's occupation is given as "Teacher of Mathematics". Shortly after this she began working as James Hinton's secretary. James Hinton (1822-1875) was a talented surgeon who, as well as writing on his medical specialities, wrote on ethical subjects and on 'thinking'. Mary Boole described Hinton as a 'thought-artist'. James Hinton died on 16 December 1875 and after this time Mary Boole began publishing books and articles. Let us note that Mary Boole's daughter Mary Ellen Boole married James Hinton's son Charles Howard Hinton (1853-1907) in 1880. Charles Howard Hinton was a mathematician who wrote "What is the Fourth Dimension?" but, after he was convicted of bigamy, Charles and Mary Ellen went first to Japan and then to the United States. At the 1881 census Mary Boole was living at 103 Seymour Place, Marylebone, London with her 22 year old daughter Margaret Boole whose occupation is described as "Art Student (Painting)". In 1885 Margaret Boole married the artist Edward Ingram Taylor in Marylebone, London; their son was the mathematician Geoffrey Ingram Taylor. At the time of the 1881 census Mary's occupation is given as "Civil Service Pensioner". In 1890 Alicia Boole married Walter Stott. Alicia Boole Stott became a mathematician making contributions to 4-dimensional geometry. The word "polytope" is due to her. At the 1891 census Mary Boole was visiting her mother who was living next door to Mary's brother George Everest, vicar of Teynham, Kent. Mary was described as "living on her own means". At the 1901 census Mary Boole was living at 16 Ladbroke Road, Notting Hill, Kensington, London. She was again described as "living on her own means". She was at the same address at the 1911 census. 5. Mary Boole's publications Let us list here some of Mary Boole's publications. These include The message of psychic science to mothers and nurses mentioned above and: Symbolic Methods of Study (K. Paul, Trench & Company, 1884); Logic taught by love (Alfred Mudge & Son, 1889); Mathematical psychology of Gratry and Boole: Translated from the Language of the Higher Calculus Into that of Elementary Geometry (Swan Sonnenschein & Company, 1897); Boole's Psychology as a Factor in Education (Benham & Company, 1902); The cultivation of the mathematical imagination (Colchester, 1902); Lectures on the Logic of Arithmetic (Clarendon Press, 1903); The Preparation of the Child for Science (Clarendon Press, 1904); Mistletoe and Olive.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Victorian Network
    Victorian Network Volume 7, Number 1 Summer 2016 Victorian Brain © Victorian Network Volume 7, Number 1 Summer 2016 www.victoriannetwork.org Guest Editor Sally Shuttleworth General Editor Sophie Duncan Founding Editor Katharina Boehm Editorial Board Megan Anderluh Sarah Crofton Rosalyn Gregory Tammy Ho Lai-Ming Sarah Hook Alison Moulds Heidi Weig Victorian Network is funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and supported by King’s College London. Victorian Network Volume 7, Number 1 (Summer 2016) TABLE OF CONTENTS GUEST EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: VICTORIAN BRAIN 1 Sally Shuttleworth ARTICLES Lucid Daydreaming: Experience and Pathology in Charlotte Brontë 12 Timothy Gao Two Brains and a Tree: Defining the Material Bases 36 for Delusion and Reality in the Woodlanders Anna West ‘The Apotheosis of Voice’: Mesmerism as Mechanisation 61 in George Du Maurier’s Trilby Kristie A. Schlauraff Female Transcendence: Charles Howard Hinton 83 and Hyperspace Fiction Patricia Beesley The Hand and the Mind, the Man and the Monster 107 Kimberly Cox BOOK REVIEWS A Cultural History of the Senses in the Age of Empire, 137 Vol. 5, ed. Constance Classen (Bloomsbury, 2014) Ian Middlebrook Popular Fiction and Brain Science in the Late Nineteenth Century, 142 by Anne Stiles (Cambridge, 2011) Arden Hegele Thomas Hardy’s Brains: Psychology, Neurology, and Hardy’s Imagination, 148 by Suzanne Keen (Ohio State, 2014) Nicole Lobdell Victorian Network Volume 7, Number 1 (Summer 2016) The Poet’s Mind: The Psychology of Victorian Poetry 1830-1870, 153 by Gregory Tate (Oxford, 2012) Benjamin Westwood Theatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett, 158 by Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (Columbia, 2015) Katharina Herold Victorian Network Volume 7, Number 1 (Summer 2016) Sally Shuttleworth 1 VICTORIAN BRAIN SALLY SHUTTLEWORTH, PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH (UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD) In April 1878 the first issue of Brain: A Journal of Neurology was published.
    [Show full text]
  • Objects Proposed for Protection Under Part 6 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (Protection of Cultural Objects on Loan)
    Immunity from Seizure Objects proposed for protection under Part 6 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (protection of cultural objects on loan) Illuminating India: 5000 years of Science & Innovation. 3 October 2017 to 22 April 2018 Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD 1. c. Sir JC Bose Trust Object description: Crescograph developed by JC Bose to measure plant growth Date made: early 20th Century Inventory number: n/a Materials: Various metals and unknown wood Dimensions: c. 762mm x 457mm x 731mm Nationality of maker: Indian Lender’s name and address: Sir JC Bose Trust, Acharya Bhaban Science Heritage Museum, 93 Archarya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700009, India Provenance: The object was built by JC Bose in the 1910s and, upon his death, passed into the ownership of the JC Bose Trust. The Trust have been in possession of this object since then. The object has a complete history of ownership from the beginning of the year 1933 to the end of the year 1945. 2. c. Sir JC Bose Trust Object description: Oscillating plate phytograph developed by JC Bose to present data on species performance by plants Title: Oscillating plate phytograph Date made: c. 1920 Inventory number: n/a Materials: various metals and unknown wood. Dimensions: 735mm x 365mm x 335mm Nationality of maker: Indian Lender’s name and address: Sir JC Bose Trust, Acharya Bhaban Science Heritage Museum, 93 Archarya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700009, India Provenance: The object was built by JC Bose in the 1910s and, upon his death, passed into the ownership of the JC Bose Trust.
    [Show full text]
  • Radhanath Sikdar First Scientist of Modern India Dr
    R.N. 70269/98 Postal Registration No.: DL-SW-1/4082/12-14 ISSN : 0972-169X Date of posting: 26-27 of advance month Date of publication: 24 of advance month July 2013 Vol. 15 No. 10 Rs. 5.00 Maria Goeppert-Mayer The Second Woman Nobel Laureate in Physics Puzzles and paradoxes (1906-1972) Editorial: Some important facets 35 of Science Communications Maria Goeppert-Mayer: The 34 Second Woman Nobel Laureate in Physics Puzzles and paradoxes 31 Radhanath Sikdar: First 28 Scientist of Modern India Surgical Options for a Benign 25 Prostate Enlargement Recent developments 22 in science and technology VP News 19 Editorial Some important facets of Science Communications Dr. R. Gopichandran recent White Paper by Hampson (2012)1 presents an insightful forums for coming together including informal settings appear to Aanalysis of the process and impacts of science communication. help fulfil communication goals. These are also directly relevant The author indicates that the faith of the public in science is to informal yet conducive learning environment in rural areas modulated by the process and outcome of communicating science, of India and hence the opportunity to further strengthen such with significant importance attributed to understanding the needs interactions. and expectations from science by communities. Hampson also Bultitude (2011)3 presents an excellent overview of the highlights the need to improve communication through systematic “Why and how of Science Communication” with special reference and logical guidance to institutions to deliver appropriately. This to the motivation to cater to specific needs of the end users of deficit also negatively impacts engagement amongst stakeholders.
    [Show full text]
  • The GREAT ARC 1-23.Qxd 6/24/03 5:27 PM Page 2
    1-23.qxd 6/24/03 5:27 PM Page 1 The GREAT ARC 1-23.qxd 6/24/03 5:27 PM Page 2 SURVEY of INDIA AN INTRODUCTION Dr. Prithvish Nag, Surveyor General of India he Survey of lndia has played an invaluable respite, whether on the slopes of the Western Ghats, role in the saga of India’s nation building. the swampy areas of the Sundarbans, ponds and TIt has seldom been realized that the founding tanks, oxbow lakes or the meandering rivers of of modern India coincides with the early activities of Bengal, Madurai or the Ganga basin. Neither were this department, and the contribution of the Survey the deserts spared, nor the soaring peaks of the has received little emphasis - not even by the Himalayas, the marshlands of the Rann of Kutch, department itself. Scientific and development rivers such as the Chambal in the north and Gandak initiatives in the country could not have taken place to the east, the terai or the dooars.With purpose and without the anticipatory actions taken by the dedication the intrepid men of the Survey confronted department, which played an indispensable the waves of the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, dust pioneering role in understanding the country’s storms of Rajasthan, cyclones of the eastern coast, the priorities in growth and defense. cold waves of the north and the widespread The path-breaking activities of the Survey came, monsoons and enervating heat. of course, at a price and with immense effort. The It was against this price, and with the scientific measurement of the country, which was the determination and missionary zeal of the Survey’s Survey’s primary task, had several ramifications.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Everest Height Measurement by Survey of India
    250 Glorious Years of the Service to the Nation History of Everest Height Measurement by Survey of India Nitin Joshi Deputy Surveyor General Surveyor General’s Office Survey of India, Dehradun • Survey of India was the first agency to determine the height of Mount Everest as 29002 ft, in 1850 and identify it as the world’s highest peak. • Subsequent observations of 1952-54 by Survey of India yielded the height of the Mt. Everest as 8848 m which is the accepted figure till date. • Many other countries have also attempted to determine height of the Mount Everest using conventional as well as modern techniques. Its precise height has long been a matter of interest and debate among surveyors and geographers all over the world. First Measurement 1849 - 1855 I Background • During 1849–1855, observations were made for North-East Longitudinal Series from Dehradun base to Sonakhoda base in Bihar. • During these triangulation observations, the Himalayan peaks of Nepal were also observed. • At that time it was not known that this peak in Himalayas is the highest in the world. Though the Himalayas were speculated by many as the highest mountains. • During computations the mean computed height of ‘Peak XV’ came out to be 29002 ft and it was named after Sir George Everest, the Ex Surveyor General of India. I Important Factors : Visibility • The observation stations were in the plains of Bihar, more than 150 km away from Mount Everest. These stations were at an average height of about 230 ft above MSL. • Towers of 25 - 30 ft were used to make the stations inter- visible.
    [Show full text]
  • The Height of Mount Everest
    MICHAEL WARD The Height of Mount Everest (Plates 10, 11) Recent expeditions to Everestfrom the north have contributed new materialtowards both the configuration ofits summit and the exact calculation ofits height. hen the peak now called 'Everest' was fIrst observed in 1847 by J W W Armstrong of the Survey of India, it was labelled 'Peakb'. Situated about 70 miles west of Kangchenjunga, it looked undistinguished and was often nearly invisible, being overshadowed by Makalu (Peak XIII), a more dominant looking mountain when viewed from up to 200 miles to the south. However, rough calculations put the height of 'Peak b' at 28,800ft. 1 (See Fig 1) Between 27 November 1849 and 17 January 1850 the same mountain, now called 'Peak h' and then 'Peak XV', was observed by J 0 Nicholson from six stations between 108 and 118 miles to the south on the plains of India using a 24-inch theodolite. Radhanath Sikhdar, the chief computer to Andrew Waugh who had succeeded George Everest as Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, calculated the results. It was not until 1852 that the computations were sufficiently advanced to indicate that Peak XV was higher than any other known mountain. But it was only in 1856 that the individual readings of 28,990ft, 28,992ft, 28,998ft, 29,002ft, 29,005ft and 29,026ft were considered sufficiently reliable for the average height of29,002ft to be recorded. This was due to atmospheric refraction which was still being investigated.2,3 It was only then, some nine years after the 'discovery' of the peak in 1847, that
    [Show full text]
  • The Cubes of Hinton
    THE CUBES OF HINTON Taneli Luotoniemi matharts.aalto.fi WIKIPEDIA SOURCES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-dimensional_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Boole_Stott HYPERSPACE PHILOSOPHER British mathematician Charles Howard Hinton, played a key part in the popularization of ‘hyperphilosophy’ by publishing many writings during the years 1884–1907, speculating on the physical as well as spiritual aspects of 4–space. He also anticipated the hidden dimensions of string theory by stating that the fourth dimension could perhaps be observed on the smallest details of physical matter. Hinton coined the names ana and kata, which refer to the positive and negative directions along the axis of the fourth spatial dimension. Charles Howard Hinton, (1853–1907) HYPERSPACE PHILOSOPHER Hinton developed a mnemonic system of some tens of thousand cubes with individual names in Latin, serving as a 3-dimensional mental retina of a kind on which to visualize the successive cross-sections of objects in 4-space. Interested in Eastern thought, he also sought to eliminate the ‘self elements’ of his system by memorizing the different orientations and mirror reflections of the cubes. Later he developed the system into a self- help method to visualize the fourth dimension, which consisted of manipulation of coloured cubes. The cubes were available Charles Howard Hinton, (1853–1907) for purchase from his publisher. Frontispiece of The Fourth Dimension (1901) ALICIA BOOLE STOTT Hinton was a frequent guest at the household of Mary Everest Boole, whose husband George was famous of his Boolean algebra.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Introduction
    Notes 1 Introduction 1. H. G. Wells, Interview with the Weekly Sun Literary Supplement, 1 December 1895; reprinted in ‘A Chat with the Author of The Time Machine, Mr H. G. Wells’, edited with comment by David C. Smith, The Wellsian, n.s. 20 (1997), 3–9 (p. 8). 2. Wells himself labelled his early scientific fantasies as ‘scientific romances’ when he published a collection with Victor Gollancz entitled The Scientific Romances of H. G. Wells in 1933, thus ensuring the adoption of the term in subsequent critical discussions of his work. The term appears to have origi- nated with the publication of Charles Howard Hinton’s Scientific Romances (1886), a collection of speculative scientific essays and short stories. 3. It should be noted, however, that Wells’s controversial second scientific romance, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), did not appear in a serialised form. However, The Invisible Man was published in Pearson’s Weekly in June and July 1897, When the Sleeper Wakes was published in The Graphic between January and May 1899, The First Men in the Moon was published in the Strand Magazine between December 1900 and August 1901 and A Modern Utopia was serialised in the Fortnightly Review between October 1904 and April 1905. 4. A number of Wells’s most significant scientific essays have been available for some time in an anthology, H. G. Wells: Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction, ed. by Robert M. Philmus and David Y. Hughes (London: University of California Press, 1975). 5. ‘A Chat with the Author of The Time Machine’, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Lesson 2: Meet Mount Everest
    Everest Education Expedition Curriculum Lesson 2: Meet Mount Everest Created by Montana State University Extended University and Montana NSF EPSCoR http://www.montana.edu/everest Lesson Overview: Begin to unravel the layers of Mount Everest through geography and history. Learn where Mount Everest sits in relation to the world, to Asia, and to surrounding countries. Compare Mount Everest to the highest peak in your region. Trace the routes of the first Americans, and other mountaineers of the past, who summited this peak, and plot the routes this expedition took as you learn the history of the world’s highest mountain. Objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Locate and identify Mount Everest including the two countries it straddles. 2. Locate and identify Granite Peak, the highest point in Montana (or the highest peak in your state or region). 3. Compare and contrast the geography and history of Mount Everest to Granite Peak (or the highest peak in your state or region). 4. Explain the route the first Americans took to summit Mount Everest. Vocabulary: base camp: a place used to store supplies and get ready for climbing located low on the mountain, safe from harsh weather, icefalls, avalanches and the effects of high altitude found higher on the mountain col (coal): a low point on a ridge in between two peaks, also called a “saddle” crevasse (kruh-VAS): a crack in a glacier’s surface that can be very deep and covered by snow elevation: the height of place measured from sea level glacier: a massive river of ice that moves slowly downward
    [Show full text]
  • Everest Teacher’S Guide P.1
    Lee & Low Books Sacred Mountain: Everest Teacher’s Guide p.1 Classroom Guide for SACRED MOUNTAIN: EVEREST by Christine Taylor-Butler Reading Level *Reading Level: Grades 4 and up Interest Level: Grades 2-8 Guided Reading Level: S *Reading level based on the Spache Readability Formula Themes Native Traditions and Way of Life, Environment/Nature (Mountains and Mountain Ecology), Religion/Spiritual Life, Respecting and Preserving the Environment, Asian/Asian American Interest Synopsis Mount Everest—a place of mystery, majesty, and unparalleled beauty—rises into the sky higher than any other mountain on Earth. Many stories have been told about the dangers and triumphs of climbing to the summit; but few have been written about the Sherpa, the people who have lived on the mountain for the centuries and consider it sacred. Known for their bravery, strength, and skill in navigating the mountain’s treacherous slopes, Sherpas have played a crucial role in Mount Everest’s exploration since the 1920s. In recent years, however, increasing tourism has threatened the mountain’s fragile ecosystem. The Sherpa now face the challenge of restoring and protecting this sacred mountain for their future and for the world. Stunning photographs and engaging text present a unique picture of Mount Everest—its history, its ecology, and especially its people. Background Mount Everest is the world’s highest mountain above sea level, measuring 29,035 feet (8,850 meters) tall. It is located in the Himalaya mountain range on the border of Nepal and Tibet. The mountain was named for Sir George Everest, the British Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Speculations on the Fourth Dimension: Selected Writings A/Charles H
    Rudy Rucker's introduction to Speculations on the Fourth Dimension: Selected Writings a/Charles H. Hinton, (Dover Publications, New York 1980). Many ofthe book's Hinton selections can be found online at http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/chh/hinton.html. INTRODUCTION Introduction Copyright (C) Rudy Rucker 2009. The father James Hinton was an ear surgeon who was best known for The Mystery of Pain, a little book which sets forth the Panglossian thesis that "all that which we feel as painful is really giving-some­ thing that our fellows are better for, even though we cannot trace it." It gives some idea of the tum of the son CQaries Hinton's mind to lea:rn that he wrote a piece, "The Persian King," in which he at­ tempted to use higher dimensions and infinite series to obtain a mathematically accurate model of this idea. Charles Howard Hinton was a professional mathematician-he took the master's degree at Oxford, taught at Princeton, and published pure mathematics related to work of Morley, Hamilton, and Cayley-but for him formal mathematics was never an end in itself. Hinton's touchstone was, rather, dir«t and intuitive knowledge of four-dimensional space. The bulk of his writings are aimed at develop­ ing in the reader the power to think about 4-D space; and the rest of his work focuses on using a knowledge of higher space to solve various problems in physics and in metaphysics. Hinton was born in London in 1853, the first son in his family. He was schooled at Rugby, and matriculated at Oxford in 1871.
    [Show full text]
  • HISTORY of SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY: SERIES THREE: Part 1, Babbage
    HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: SERIES THREE: Part 1, Babbage THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Series Three: The Papers of Charles Babbage, 1791-1871 Part 1: Correspondence and Scientific Papers from the British Library, London Contents listing PUBLISHER'S NOTE BRIEF BIOGRAPHY BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY CONTENTS OF REELS LISTING BY CORRESPONDENT HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: SERIES THREE: Part 1, Babbage Publisher's Note “The idea of a digital computer is an old one. ... Babbage had all the essential ideas....” Alan Turing Alan Turing’s comment confirms the importance of Babbage to the History of Computing. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (aged 24) in 1816 - the same year in which Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written - Babbage showed that a machine could be created which could replicate certain areas of human thought. Babbage designed first the Difference Engine (an automatic mechanical calculating machine) and then the Analytical Engine (a pioneer digital computer). His designs included a central processing unit (“the Mill”), memory (“the Store”), variables, operators and a printer to output conclusions. The design was one thing, actually constructing the machines with the available technology proved to be extremely difficult. Notwithstanding substantial grants from the Royal Society and the British Government Babbage failed to create either. That glory was left to the Swedish printer, Georg Scheutz, who won a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition for constructing the Difference Engine. A close friend and collaborator in much of his work was Augusta Ada Byron, later the Countess of Lovelace, who was the only child of Lord Byron. She was confident of the importance of the machine, stating that “We may most aptly say that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.” The metaphor was appropriate, for Babbage used a card reader inspired by the punched cards used on Jacquard loom.
    [Show full text]