Charles Hutton and the ‘Dissensions’ of 1783–84: scientific networking and its failures

Abstract

This paper proposes a fresh look at the 'Dissensions' that held up scientific business at the Royal Society during the spring of 1784. It focuses attention on the career and personal networks of Charles Hutton, whose dismissal from the role of Foreign Secretary ignited the row. It shows that the incident had no single cause but was the outcome of several factors that made Hutton intolerable to Joseph Banks, President of the Society, and of several factors that made Banks unpopular as President among a group of about 40 otherwise rather disparate Fellows.

The Teaching of Mathematics at the Royal Military Academy: Evolution in Continuity

“…He was, among other things, editor of the Ladies' Diary starting from 1774, and the author of a dictionary of mathematics [Hutton 1795]. For more details about Hutton see for example [Johnson 1989a], [Wardhaugh 2017a[Wardhaugh ,b,c, 2019.…”

Making public ahead of print: Meetings and publications at the Royal Society, 1752–1892

“…Some papers were split between meetings, and others read in abstract rather than in full. 22 This power of sequencing, cutting and shaping papers for the Society vested considerable additional influence in the Society's officers, beyond simple gatekeeping. This de facto concentration of power over meetings and publications was one of the chief bones of contention in the early dissatisfaction with Banks's leadership of the Society.…”