Charles Hutton: ‘One of the greatest mathematicians in Europe’?

Abstract

If you are interested in eighteenth-or nineteenth century British mathematics, you've heard of him; you've quite probably used his 1795 Dictionary as a historical source. You quite possibly don't know much else. I'm at present working on an AHRC-funded biography of Charles Hutton, together with an edition of his hundred-odd surviving letters. This article reflects on the nature and significance of Hutton's achievements, and what his example tells us about mathematical biography more generally.

Encyclopedias as Markers of Heritage Building: Fluxion Articles in British Encyclopaedias, 1704-1850

“…36. B. Wardaugh has devoted in recent years several works on facets of this character [Wardhaugh 2017c,a,b] as well as a beautiful biography [Wardhaugh 2019].…”