Abstract
ON August 14 occurs the bicentenary of the birth of the well-known English mathematician Dr. Charles Hutton, who for thirty-four years held the chair of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and who for a long period was a prominent member of the Royal Society. Born in Newcastle -upon-Tyne, Hutton was the son of a colliery labourer and though he attended a dame's school in the Gallowgate, he was almost entirely self-taught. He began life as an assistant teacher at Jesmond, and from 1760 until 1773 he conducted a school of his own in Newcastle and while doing so contributed to the Ladies' Diary and other periodicals, and published some excellent elementary works on arithmetic, book-keeping and mensuration. The failure of a bridge in his native city led him to write his "Principles of Bridges and the Mathematical Demonstration of the Laws of Arches", and in 1773 after a severe competitive trial he was appointed to the professorship at Woolwich, where he worked until 1807. In 1774, he was admitted to the fellowship of the Royal Society ; in 1775 he made the calculations in connexion with Maskelyne's experiments at Schiehallion, Perthshire, for determining the mean density of the earth, and in 1779 was made LL.D. of the University of Edinburgh and foreign secretary of the Royal Society. This position he held until 1783, when complaints having been made of the way he had carried out his duties, he resigned. Sir Joseph Banks was then president, and Hutton's resignation raised a storm of protest at the way he had been treated. At a meeting of the Society on December 18, 1783, however, when Hutton submitted his "Defence", a resolution was passed stating "that if Dr. Hutton hath been in the opinion of any Member of the Society incriminated, it is the opinion of the Society that he hath fully justified himself".
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Bicentenary of Dr. Charles Hutton, F.R.S. Nature 140, 269 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140269a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140269a0