The British Society for the History of Mathematics
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Written by David Singmaster (zingmast@sbu.ac.uk ). Links to relevant external websites are being added occasionally to this gazetteer but the BSHM has no control over the availability or contents of these links. Please inform the BSHM Webster (A.Mann@gre.ac.uk) of any broken links.
[When the gazetteer was edited for serial publication in the BSHM Newsletter, references were omitted since the bibliography was too substantial to be included. Publication on the web permits references to be included for material now being added to the website, but they are still absent from material originally prepared for the Newsletter - TM, August 2002]
Because of its size, the London section of the Gazetteer is divided into eight pages: the main index page; scientific institutions and societies (this page); the British Museum, British Library and Science Museum; other institutions and places; and mathematical people: A - C, D - G, H - M, N - R and S - Z. Inevitably these categories are somewhat arbitrary so use of the index page and / or the Search facility is recommended.
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The University of London was formed to combine University College and King's College. It was chartered in 1836, initially as just an examining and degree granting body. Teaching was left to UCL and KCL. The University of London Act (1898) restructured UL as a teaching university and it soon admitted many other colleges.
The headquarters was once in the back of Burlington House, where the Museum of Mankind is now. This was a separate building from the front part which now houses the Royal Academy. It was built in 1866-1869. With the opening of the new Sackler Galleries at the Royal Academy, one can clearly see that there were originally two buildings. Moved to Imperial Institute in the 1920s.
The University has an Observatory at Mill Hill Park.
Senate House was started in 1932, but interrupted by WW2 and never really completed. Designed by Charles Holden, the architect of much of the Underground. The University Library is in Senate House. It contains the library of Augustus De Morgan - cf University College above - and his papers presented by his son William about 1900.
Augustus De Morgan taught for two terms in 1849-1850 when the College was in Bedford Square. It merged with Royal Holloway College in 1985.
Despite being the evening college of the University of London, Birkbeck has had a distinguished record in certain sciences, notably crystallography. L. J. Mordell taught here in 1913-1920, with two years out as statistician in the Ministry of Munitions. The crystallographer J. D. Bernal was here, as were Roger Penrose and P. M. S. Blackett.
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Imperial College in South Kensington, is now the leading technological college in the UK, but is relatively modern, dating from the end of the last century. E. W. Hobson was a student here. A. R. Forsyth (1855-1942) was Professor and Head of Mathematics in 1913-1923. A. N. Whitehead was Professor of Applied Mathematics, 1914-1924, when he resigned to go to Harvard. H. Levy was Professor from 1927. Blackett was here. Abdus Salam was Professor of Theoretical Physics from 1957.
In the lobby of the Mechanical Engineering Building is the Guilds Clock of 1884, an example of Grimthorpe's work (see Houses of Parliament in Section 2-A), originally on the City and Guilds Central Institute building of 1884. When the building was demolished in 1963, the clock was preserved and set up at the present site in 1972 with a new elaborate compound pendulum so it could run in a limited space. It should be running, but was not when I visited it in 1992.
Henry Moseley was Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy in 1831-1844, as well as Chaplain in 1831-1833. Wheatstone was Professor of Experimental Physics from 1834. Cayley was a student from 1835, aged 14. Maxwell was Professor in 1860-1865. Clifford was a student in 1860-1863. Golombek was a student of philology, c1930. Arthur C. Clarke was a student. Hermann Bondi was Professor of Mathematics, 1954-1985, though from 1967 he was involved in other jobs.
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The LSE has not had major mathematical figures, but Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994) was Reader in Logic from 1945, then Professor of Logic and Scientific Method from 1948 until his retirement in 1969. Imre Lakatos taught here.
In 1949, Bill Phillips, a New Zealand engineer turned economist at LSE, produced a water-based analogue computer to illustrate income flow in the national economy, using water to represent money. Though it only had accuracy of 4%, the perspex construction gave immediate visual display of interactions and instabilities. It was really designed for exposition rather than calculation. It was about 7' high by 5' wide. The Professor of Economics used it effectively by giving two students the tasks of controlling flow as though they were the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of England acting independently - the results were always disastrous. The prototype version went to Leeds. Some 14 other examples were built, including one for LSE which has been restored and put on display in the Science Museum, London, in 1995, but it no longer operates. [Doron Swade, 'Liquid assets', The Guardian, part 2, (16 Mar 1995) 5.]
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UCL, in Gower Street, was the first part of the University of London, founded in 1828 to provide university education free of religious restrictions. The classical main building was designed by William Wilkins, a mathematician turned architect (qv under Cambridge) and built in 1827-1829. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was a principal founder and left his entire estate to the College. His 'auto-icon', prepared by Southwood Smith, is in a glass case in the South Cloisters and is often on display, but the head had to be replaced by a wax mask very early on [Welfare & Fairley, p. 96 with photo on cover and p. 97].
Augustus De Morgan (1806-1871) was the first Professor of Mathematics from 1828 until 1831 when he resigned over a matter of academic freedom. His successor drowned in a boating accident in 1836, by which time the University regulations had been amended, so that De Morgan returned as Professor from 1836 to 1866, when he again resigned over a matter of religious tolerance. [Neumann.] Because of the final separation from UCL and financial need of the family, De Morgan's extensive library was not offered to UCL but was purchased by Lord Overstone who presented it to the University of London and it is housed in Senate House. Jevons was a student of De Morgan, but financial problems caused him to leave in 1854 before completing his degree, but he returned five years later and got an MA [Gardner, p. 91].
John Thomas Graves (1806-1870), brother of R. P. Graves (William Rowan Hamilton's colleague and biographer), was Professor of Jurisprudence here in 1839-1843. He started life as a mathematician and devoted much of his life to collecting old mathematical books, leaving some 14,000 items to UCL. It is kept as a separate collection, but it was simply catalogued with the rest of the library's holdings and it is in store, so it has been difficult to use. UCL has recently received a grant to produce a catalogue which will make these material much more usable - work had already begun in Jun 1995. [Adrian Rice; British Libraries #4: The Graves Collection, University College London; BSHM Newsletter 28 (Spring 1995) 37-40 & Addendum in 31 (Spring 1996) 50. DBS.]
Sylvester was a student for five months in Nov 1828-Feb 1829. He was 14 and I am not clear if he was at the School or the College, or indeed if they were separate institutions at the time - see under Schools below. Later, he was Professor of Natural Philosophy, 1838-1840, but he did not find this congenial. W. W. Rouse Ball was a student to 1869. T. A. Hirst was Professor of Physics in 1865-1867, then succeeded De Morgan in Pure Mathematics to 1873. Clifford was Professor of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics from 1870 to 1877, when his health broke down and he was replaced by Rouse Ball for a year. Jevons was Professor of Political Economy in 1876-1880, resigning due to failing health [Gardner, p. 91]. Oliver Lodge was Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics in 1879-1880. A. N. Whitehead taught here in 1911-1914. G. N. Watson taught here in 1914-1918. W. H. Bragg was Quain Professor of Physics in 1915-1923. Todhunter was a student before going to Cambridge. Davenport was Astor Professor from 1945 to 1958. Freeman J. Dyson, C. A. Rogers were students of Davenport's. K. F. Roth did his thesis here under T. Estermann in 1946-1949? and then joined the staff. Davenport founded Mathematika here in 1953.
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UCL was the most significant site for the development of statistics - Galton, Fisher, Weldon and both Pearsons were here. K. Pearson was Goldsmid Professor of Applied Mathematics in 1884-1911, then Galton Professor of Eugenics and Director of the Galton Laboratory in 1911-1933. He founded Biometrika. Charles Edward Spearman (1863-1945) held various posts, finally Professor of Psychology, and introduced factor analysis in 1904 which he attempted to use to obtain a coefficient of general intelligence. He also introduced the Spearman rank correlation measure, which Pearson violently disagreed with. Richardson was an assistant to Pearson in 1907. Fisher succeeded Pearson as Galton Professor for 1933-1943, but continued to live at Harpenden and his unit was evacuated to Rothamsted during the war. [Gower.] Gosset ("Student"), Yule and Neyman were here for short but significant periods. Comrie recalled first learning about the Brunsviga machine from Karl Pearson here on Armistice Day [Tee]. L. S. Penrose was Galton Professor. Cyril Burt succeeded Spearman as Professor of Psychology.
Angus Armitage, the popular historian of science, was at UCL, c1940.
Sir James Lighthill was Provost from 1979.
Was in Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead. Olga Taussky ( -1995) taught here in 1937-1943 [Kilmister, p. 334]. It merged with Queen Mary College.
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A number of mathematicians have been in or studied for the legal profession. (The English legal profession has long been divided into two parts- solicitors, who handle ordinary matters - and barristers, who conduct court cases. The training of barristers is supervised by the four Inns of Court in London. One actually works and studies in a barrister's office, or now at a college, and the Inns supervise the overall process and the examinations.) Notable examples are the following.
Gray's Inn
Bacon was a prominent member from 1576 and his statue is in South Square and his portrait is in the Hall. He had rooms at 1 Gray's Inn Square from 1577 to 1622 (or until 1606 and again from c1620) -the site is now covered by Verulam Buildings. He laid out the gardens in 1597-1598, planting elms. The ancient catalpa tree(s?) are said to have been brought from Virginia by Walter Raleigh and planted by Bacon - though horticultural opinion says catalpas first came to England in 1726 and Raleigh was never in Virginia [Ackermann, p. 292; Harper, p. 41]. [Eastman, p. 235] says in 1985 that the catalpas survived until recently, but [Blackwood, p. 162] says in 1989 that they still exist. Thomas Gresham was a member. Henry Dudeney lived at 6 South Square from sometime in the 1870s to 1884.
Inner Temple
Maseres was called to the Bar (i.e. became a barrister) here in 1758. Bromhead studied here in 1812-1813. J. J. Sylvester was a student in 1846-1850, was called to the Bar here in 1850 and was a member. Karl Pearson was called to the Bar here in 1882.
Lincoln's Inn
Jeremy Bentham lived here in 1766-1792, at 1 Elm Court and at 6 Old Buildings. Because Arthur Cayley would not take holy orders, he practised as a barrister here at 2 Stone Buildings, 1849-1863, after studying for 3 years. Augustus De Morgan studied here. Ferrars was a student and was called to the Bar here in 1855.
[A. C. Ranyard; The gateway of Old Square, Lincoln's Inn; Knowledge 13 (2 Jun 1890) 143-147] asserts that the stairways at Lincoln's Inn and other Inns of Court were the first numbered houses in England, c1712. Numbering on streets did not become common until the 1760s. [Harper, pp. 248-249] agrees that the stairways of the Inns of Court (but he doesn't specify which) were the origin of numbering and that New Burlington Street, Piccadilly, was the first street to be numbered, in Jun 1764, followed by Lincoln's Inn Fields. However, the idea was first used in 1463 on the Pont Notre-Dame in Paris. Ranyard's article castigates the restoration supervised by Lord Grimthorpe, designer of the clock at Parliament. His restoration work was not always well received, particularly here and at St. Albans Abbey, and 'to grimthorpe' was used for 'to do a rotten job of restoration' [Espy, p. 111].
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Garnett College is named for William Garnett. It is now incorporated into the University of Greenwich.
Sir Thomas Gresham (1519 (or 1513)-1579) was a wealthy merchant, Royal Agent in Antwerp, the founder of the Royal Exchange, a propounder of Gresham's law in economics (first given some 30 years previously by Copernicus!) and the supposed founder of Martin's Bank, the oldest in London. His will of 1575 provided for the establishment of a college in his house in Bishopsgate St., to be staffed by seven unmarried resident professors, including professors in astronomy and geometry. The College started up on his widow's death in 1597. By that time, Edinburgh had established professors of mathematics and natural philosophy, in 1583. Gresham's house was used until 1768 but is now covered by Gresham House, which has a City of London plaque on it at 24 Old Broad St. From then to the present, the College has moved several times. It was in the Royal Exchange from 1773 until its destruction by fire in 1838. A special building was constructed in 1842-1843 at Cateaton St. (now Gresham St.) and Basinghall St. This was rebuilt and extended in 1912?13 and was in use until 1965. It was assimilated as an extracurricular part of the City University after 1966, but has recently been re-established as a separate body in association with the University. In 1984-1991, lectures were held in the new Barbican Centre, the Museum of London and similar City venues. In 1991, the College was established in Barnard's Inn Hall, Holborn, originally an Inn of Chancery, subsequently part of Mercers' School in 1892-1959 and described in Dickens' Great Expectations. Lectures are sometimes given there.
Notable holders of the geometry chair have been: Henry Briggs (1597-1620);
Laurence Rooke (1657-1662); Isaac Barrow (1662-1664); Robert
Hooke (1665-1703); Karl Pearson (1890-1894, who outlined the modern
development of statistics in his lectures); L. M. Milne-Thomson (1946-1956);
T. A. A. Broadbent (1956-1971); Clive Kilmister (1971-1988); Sir
Christopher Zeeman (1988-1994); Ian Stewart (1994-1998), and the
twenty-seventh geometry professor, Sir Roger Penrose (1998-2001)
Notable Professors of Astronomy have been: Edmund Gunter (1619/20-1626/7,
died in the College); Henry Gellibrand (1626/7-1636/7, who completed
Briggs' Trigonometrica Britannica); John Greaves (??-1643, a scholar
of ancient astronomy who gave the first detailed description of the Great Pyramid,
later Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford); Laurence Rooke (1652-1657);
Christopher Wren (1657-1660/1); John Machin (1713-1751).
In 1658, Wren determined the arc length of the cycloid. He had been one of the Oxford group which was the precursor of the Royal Society. By 1658, several members of the group had come to London and started meeting at the 'Bull-head Taverne' in Cheapside. As the meetings grew larger, the group transferred in 1660 to Gresham College because of the presence of Wren and Rooke. On 28 Nov 1660, Wilkins suggested forming a 'College' and this became the Royal Society in 1662. Wren made a relief model of the moon. Wren and Hooke debated the laws of motion and gravity here with Halley. Wren offered the famous reward of a 'book worth forty shillings' to whomever gave a convincing argument for the inverse square law (Halley was dissatisfied with Hooke's attempt and went to see Newton in Cambridge, leading to the Principia). Newton came here to explain his work to them. The earliest public teaching of Newton's ideas was probably the lectures of Wren and Hooke here.
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Morley College, Lambeth, is a major extension college for the arts. I recently noticed a handsome sculptured knot by an entrance in King Edward Walk.
The (Royal) Polytechnic Institution, Regent Street, was founded by George Cayley (the pioneer aerodynamicist) et al. in 1839. The Polytechnic closed c1880 and was reopened in 1882 as the Regent Street Polytechnic. It became part of the Polytechnic of Central London, c1970, which became the University of Westminster in c1992. It was a favourite location for exhibitions of magic and science. John Henry Pepper was here from 1848. In 1868, Henry Dircks devised the illusion which he and Pepper developed into "Pepper's Ghost". [G. Lamb, Victorian Magic, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1976, pp. 43?44 & 50.] Also in 1868, Charles Arthur (or Edward) Hooper first exhibited his automaton chess-player called Ajeeb [Carroll, p. 99]. It was also the location of the first photographic studio in Europe (1841) and the first film showings in England (1896).
The Royal Indian Engineering College was at Cooper's Hill, Egham. Joseph Wolstenholme (1829-1891) was a professor in 1871-1889.
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The Royal Military Academy, formerly at Woolwich, was a major scientific institution from its foundation in 1741. Mathematical professors have included: Thomas Simpson (1743-1761, of Simpson's rules, actually due to Newton and Cotes); John Bonnycastle (1782-1785); Charles Hutton (1773-1807); Olinthus Gregory (master from 1802, Professor in 1807-1838); Peter Barlow (beginning as a lecturer in 1801, to 1847); Francis Bashforth; E. J. Routh and Sylvester (1855-1870). (Sylvester was turned down in 1854, but the appointee died the next year. He was compelled to retire in 1870.)
In 1773, the post was hotly contested by 8 candidates and a competitive examination was held. Hutton greatly improved the standing of the School. In 1775-1778, he carried out the calculations from N. Maskelyne's measurements at Schiehallion, leading to a value of G.
P. A. MacMahon was a student 1871-1873. After service in India, he returned as Instructor in Mathematics in 1882-1890 (when he met Greenhill), then Professor of Physics at the Ordnance College in 1890-1897. A. G. (Sir George) Greenhill was Professor at the nearby Artillery College, 1876-1908. Littlewood served in the Royal Artillery nearby at Woolwich Arsenal in 1914-1918.
There was a Royal Military College in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, in the early 19C, but I am unsure of their connection if any.
James Ivory (1765-1842: professor 1804-1816) and William Wallace (1768-1843) were Professors at the Royal Military Academy, which subsequently became Sandhurst [Alex Craik].
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The Royal Naval College, Romney Road, Greenwich, SE10, lies to the north, across Romney Road, from the National Maritime Museum. Previously a royal palace, Greenwich Palace, known as Placentia, was on the site - Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were born here. Charles II planned to rebuild it and one block was built in the 1660s. William and Mary decided to convert it into a Royal Naval Hospital, similar to Chelsea Hospital, i.e. more for retired sailors than ill ones. The overall design was by Wren about 1698, but most of the actual work was done by successors such as Hawksmoor - an exhibit in the Queen's House gives details, including a model of the domes. Mary objected to losing her view of the river, so the central open space had to be provided. The SW building, by Wren, has a double arches across the west-facing facades of its end blocks. In the double arches, one is circular, the other is cycloidal. [Summerson, pp. 136-137.] It was planned to accommodate 3000 pensioners. In 1805, Nelson's body lay in state here. Though a hospital, there was also a school here - Edward Riddle (1788-1854) was master of the mathematical school from 1821 and Thomas Dobson was master in the late 1850s. The Hospital closed in 1869. The Royal Naval College moved here in 1873 from Portsmouth, and the building was later used for various purposes, including the Royal Naval Engineering College, the Royal Naval Staff College, and most recently the Joint Services Defence College. Prince Phillip and Prince Andrew both were students here. Military use ceased in 1997 and the site is now open to the publi. The buildings, except for the Chapel and Painted Hall, are leased by the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music.
The main entrance is at the west side of the College in King William Walk, but you can also use the east entrance. On top of the pillars of the West Gates are 6 ft diameter stone globes - celestial and terrestrial - from 1754. The right, terrestrial, globe showed Anson's circumnavigation but has faded into illegibility. The Great Painted Hall contains one of the world's largest paintings and is normally open from 10:00 to 16:00. The painting includes pictures of Navigation, Astronomy, Geography, Archimedes consulting a globe, Galileo with a telescope, Brahe, Copernicus, Flamsteed and the latter's assistant Weston. Flamsteed is observing through a telescope and holds a paper predicting the solar eclipse at 17:15 on 22 Apr 1715. [Dawson. Hamilton, p. 71.] Burnside (1852-1927) was a professor here (1885-1919). Milne-Thomson was a professor. At the British Mathematical Colloquium held here occurred the famous incident of Mordell falling asleep while chairing Davenport's lecture and then adding an anecdote which Davenport had just given.
The College started in 1832-1841 at a site in Camberwell - Southwark is proposing a plaque on the Town Hall extension on the north side of Peckham Road [Southwark]. T. A. Hirst was first Director of Studies, 1873-1883.
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The Nautical Almanac Office was located at Greenwich (in the Royal Naval College). The Almanac was begun by N. Maskelyne in 1766 as a table for calculating longitude from the position of the moon ("the lunar distances") and this feature actually continued until 1907 since it provided a check on the errors of chronometers. It was originally a service of the Observatory, but due to Pond's lack of interest and the consequent difficulty in supervising it, it was separated off in 1831. It returned to the Astronomer Royal's supervision in 1937 and removed to Herstmonceux in 1949. Thomas Young was Superintendent from c1820 to 1829 because of Pond's lack of interest. Comrie was Deputy Director from 1926, then Director from 1930 to 1936. He introduced punched card computing equipment.
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There have been a number of other famous schools in London, although most have now left the city. Some famous pupils and staff are given below.
Charterhouse
In Charterhouse Square until it moved to Godalming, Surrey, in 1872. Pupils include Barrow (who was expelled as a bully) and Sir James Cockle.
Christ's Hospital (The "Blue-coat School")
Founded by Ed6 as an orphanage in 1553. This was on the site of the Post Office, Newgate Street (City Plaque), from 1552 (or 1553) to 1902 when it moved to West Horsham, Sussex. In the 1670s, this was the first school to have a 'mathematical side', established by Charles II, at the instigation of Pepys, and later known as the Royal Mathematical School. Edward Paget, a Fellow of Trinity College, was appointed mathematical master in 1682 on Newton's recommendation. Flamsteed, Hooke, Locke, Newton, Pepys and Wren all took an interest in the school and served as governors, examiners, etc. In 1692, Wren was asked to design the Writing School, but he only provided an idea, the rest being carried out by his pupil Hawksmoor [Summerson, p. 136]. In 1694, Newton wrote a long letter outlining a course of mathematical reading for the students [Merton, pp. 172-173]. Jonas Moore, Surveyor General of the Ordnance (cf under Royal Observatory) wrote New Systeme of the Mathematics, with contributions from Flamsteed and Halley, for the school. In 1716, Newton presented the school with a die for making badges to be worn by the ten extra pupils supported by a donation from Henry Stone. Humphrey Ditton was master of the mathematics school about 1713.
James Dodson, author of the Anti-logarithmic Canon was a teacher. James Hodgson, author of The Doctrine of Fluxions (1736 - the best early work on Fluxions), was Master for many years. William Wales was mathematical master from c1780. William Burnside, the group theorist, was a pupil to 1871. Philip Hall was a student. [Blackwood, p. 83] says a statue of Sir John (presumably Jonas) Moore was done for the School c1700.
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City of London School
This was located at 1 Milk St. Buildings, Milk St., from 1835 to 1882 (City Plaque) [List of Corporation Plaques]. From then to 1987 it was on Victoria Embankment in a building constructed while Edwin Abbott Abbott (author of Flatland) was Headmaster. In 1987, it moved to a new building in Queen Victoria Street. The old Great Hall has windows to Plato, Chaucer, Newton, inter alia, and there is a statue of Newton on the facade. Abbott, Piaggio, W. H. Young were students. William Garnett was a student from about 1863 to 1869 and was head boy in mathematics.
Dulwich College
The philosopher G. E. Moore was a student.
Eton College
Founded by Henry VI in 1440, in conjunction with King's College, Cambridge. Oughtred was born here in 1574, his father being the pantler (or a writing master) of the school, and then he was a student here [Lenihan, p. 127; Stander (3)]. Barrow was a Fellow. Boyle entered at age 8 and spent about 4 years here. Rayleigh and H. G. J. Moseley (to 1906) were pupils. John Herschel was a student for one year. J. B. S. Haldane was a student.
Henry Savile (1549-1622), of the Savilian chairs, was Provost of Eton from 1596, while continuing as Warden of Merton. He was a somewhat irregular appointment as he was not an Etonian nor a Kingsman nor a cleric, but he was sponsored by Elizabeth's current favourite, the Earl of Essex. Savile greatly improved the school's reputation. He died at Eton and is buried in the Chapel. Christopher Wren is said to have designed the Upper School, but there is no evidence for this.
Harrow Fisher was a student. John Spilsbury was a teacher here in the 1760s when he made the first dissected map - the beginning of the jig-saw puzzle. Colenso was a master in 1839-1841, but he got involved in financial problems after his house burnt and had to sell the copyright of his mathematical works [Mullinger, p. 282]. The pioneer photographer W. H. Fox Talbot was a student.
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St. Paul's
Charles Pendlebury, a well known writer of school arithmetic texts, was senior mathematical master here in the late 19C. F. S. Macaulay was a teacher here from 1895 until c1920 and taught Littlewood and Watson. He was a very rare thing - a schoolmaster FRS, and addressed the ICM in 1904. Halley was School Captain at only 15 [Low, p. 29.] Also: J. C. Burkill, Cotes, Littlewood, Pepys, G. N. Watson.
University College School
J. J. Sylvester was a pupil here, entering at age 14 in Nov 1828 at a time when the distinction between the school and the college was a bit indefinite. He studied under De Morgan, but had problems adapting and was removed from the school in Feb 1829. The Professor of Latin reported taking a knife from him which Sylvester had intended to use on another student.
W. W. Rouse Ball was a pupil here, also G. I. Taylor. T.A. Hirst was mathematics master in 1860-1864. G. S. Carr.
Westminster School
Demainbray, Freeman Dyson, Edmund Gunter, Thomas Hooke, John Locke, Nevil Maskelyne, Chrisopher Wren (in the 1640s). Zerah Colburn, the American calculating prodigy, was a student in 1816?1817. "Alice" Liddell was born at 19 Dean's yard while her father was headmaster here in 1852. They moved to Oxford three years later. W. W. Rouse Ball was a governor.
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The British Association for the Advancement Of Science (BAAS) was founded in 1831 and is presently at Fortress House, 23 Savile Row, London, W1X 1AB. Its Section A is mathematics, though this has rarely been a major feature of the Association. Nonetheless a number of its presidents have been of mathematical interest: Airy (1851), Hopkins (1853), Stokes (1869), Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1871), Spottiswoode (1878), J. J. Thomson (1909), Rutherford (1923), W. H. Bragg (1928), Jeans (1934), D. Hodgkin (1977).
The Institute of Actuaries was founded in 1848 and is located in Staple Inn Hall, High Holborn.
The London Mathematical Society (LMS) had for a long time its office in the Royal Astronomical Society (see below) but has now moved to De Morgan House, Russell Square. It was founded in 1865 by G. C. De Morgan, A. C. Ranyard and friends. Augustus De Morgan was the first President and T. A. Hirst was first Vice-President. Almost all notable British mathematicians since then have been officers and/or have received prizes of the LMS. The premier prize is the triennial De Morgan Medal, first given to Cayley in 1884. This has now been supplemented with a new Polya Medal, to be given in the years that the De Morgan Medal is not given. The first recipient was John Conway, in 1987.
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The Royal Astronomical Society, in Burlington House, Piccadilly, has numerous portraits and busts of mathematical interest. It even has a piece of Newton's apple tree!! This is apparently as authentic as it is possible to be. It also has De Morgan's scrapbooks. Babbage, F. Baily, Colebrooke, O. Gregory, J. Herschel, J. South were among the founders. W. Herschel was first president, with Babbage, Bailey and J. Herschel among the first secretaries. John Louis Emil Dreyer, the cataloguer of nebulae and clusters and historian of astronomy (particularly of Tycho Brahe), was President in 1923-1925.
In Jan 1935, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar presented his ideas on the collapse of stars to the Society. Eddington and others were incredulous. The ideas were the foundation of red giants, neutron stars, quasars and black holes. It was 33 years before the discovery of pulsars and the recognition that they were neutron stars verified his predictions, leading to the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. [Tucker & Lovell.]
The Royal Institution is in its original building at 21 Albemarle Street. It was founded in 1799 by the American Benjamin Thomson, later Count Rumford. It has a most distinguished history in the physical sciences. Its directors have included Davy, Faraday, Tyndall, Dewar, Rayleigh, J. J. Thomson, Rutherford, both Braggs, Andrade and George Porter! Thomas Young was also here, and there is some connection with Henry Cavendish. Maxwell demonstrated the first colour photograph here on 17 May 1861 (see in Section 3 for details). The Ambulatory, under the famous Lecture Theatre, has exhibits and memorabilia relating to notable persons connected with the Institution. The Institution possesses one of two examples of a wave demonstration model made by Wheatstone, c1840 [Wray]. Rayleigh was Professor in 1887-1905 when he discovered argon - Nobel Prize in Physics, 1904. J. J. Thomson described his discovery of the electron here on 29 Apr 1897. He was Professor here in 1905-1920 - Nobel Prize in Physics, 1906.
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The Royal Society is now at 6 Carlton House Terrace, an elegant Regency building overlooking The Mall, designed by John Nash in 1827-1829. [Not in Pall Mall, as given in Alexanderson.]
The Royal Society is a outgrowth of groups which started meeting in London and in Oxford in 1645. At the Restoration, many of these people had moved to London. The group generally met at Gresham College at the time of the Society's founding in 1660 and for some time after its first Charter of 15 Jul 1662. On 28 Nov 1660, a group gathered to hear a lecture by Wren and decided to meet weekly. There were 12 in this group: Ball, Boyle, Brouncker, Bruce, Goddard, Hill, Moray, Neile, Petty, Rooke, Wilkins, Wren. Wilkins was appointed chairman, Ball Treasurer and Croone, though absent, Registrar (= Secretary). They resolved to meet at Rooke's room in Gresham College during term time and at Ball's room in the Temple in vacation. They made a list of 41 others who might be interested in joining, nearly all of whom later joined. On 5 Dec, Sir Robert Moray reported that the King was encouraging and an expanded list of names was prepared, consisting of almost all those on the previous list and 73 others. The poet Abraham Cowley was one of the 41 and was elected on 6 Mar 1661. Later in 1661, he published A Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy which advocated a College of twenty professors. However, he moved away from London and was not one of the Charter members. The Society was originally open to all interested, but since 1848 elections are limited to distinguished scientists, at most 40 per year, with at most 6 Foreign Members.
Prior to the first charter, the President or Director was a monthly post and rotated among Moray, Wilkins, Brouncker, Boyle and possibly George Ent. The first Charter was granted on 15 Jul 1662, naming 21 persons as the Council: Balle, Boyle, Brereton, Brouncker (President), Timothy Clarke, Digby, Ent, Erskine, Evelyn, Goddard, Henshawe, Moray, Neile, Oldenburg (Secretary), Dudley Palmer, Petty, Slingesby, Wallis, Wilkins, C. Wren, M. Wren. The Society was considerably reorganized by a second charter on 22 Apr 1663 with the fuller name "the Royal Society of London for promoting Natural Knowledge", with Brouncker still as President and Wilkins and Oldenburg as Secretaries. (There was a third charter in 1669, but it was basically a grant of land and made few changes.) In May and Jun 1663, 119 original fellows were named. Ashmole, Aubrey, Barrow, Boyle, Brouncker, Colwall, Croone, Digby, Ent, Evelyn, Glisson, Goddard, Graunt, Hooke, Huygens, Moray, Neile, Oldenburg, Pell, Pett (father & son), Petty, Walter Pope, Vermuyden, Wallis, Ward, Wilkins, F. Willoughby, Wren were among these, along with the poets Denham, Dryden and Waller. The Philosophical Transactions was started by Oldenburg in 1665 and is the oldest continuing scientific journal. (The Journal des sçavans also started in 1665, but I don't know whether it was before or after this.)
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The RS continued to meet at Gresham College until 1710, except when displaced as a result of the Great Fire to Arundel House, on the south side of the Strand at Arundel St., from 1666 to 1673. In 1710, it bought a house in Crane Court, on the north side of Fleet St., a site now(?) occupied by the Scottish Corporation. In 1780, it moved to Somerset House; in 1857, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly; in 1968, it moved to the present site.
Mathematical PRSs have been: Brouncker (1662-1677), Wren (1680-1682), Newton (1703-1727), Davies (Giddy) Gilbert (1827-1830 - he wrote on negative numbers), William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse (1848-1854), Airy (1871-1873), Spottiswoode (1878-1883), Stokes (1885-1890), Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1890-1895), Rayleigh (1905-1908), J. J. Thomson (1915-1920), Rutherford (1925-1930), W. H. Bragg (1935-40), Blackett (1965-70), Atiyah (1990-1995).
The Society's premier medal is the Copley Medal, begun in 1731, which has occasionally been awarded to mathematicians and others of interest: Bradley (1748), J. Harrison (1749), B. Franklin (1753), Charles Hutton (1778), Waring (1784), Ramsden (1795), Hellins (1798), Troughton (1809), Ivory (1814), Brewster (1815), J. Herschel (1821), Arago (1825), Peter Barlow (1825), Airy (1831), Faraday (1832), Poisson (1832), G. Plana (1834), Gauss (1838), Faraday (1838), Robert Brown (1839), Sturm (1840), Ohm (1841), MacCullagh (1842), LeVerrier (1846), J. Herschel (1847), J. C. Adams (1848), Foucault (1855), Weber (1859), Chasles (1865), Plücker (1866), Wheatstone (1868), Joule (1870), Sylvester (1880), Cayley (1882), Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (1883), George Salmon (1889), Simon Newcomb (1890), Stokes (1893), Weierstrass (1895), Rayleigh (1899), Gibbs (1901), Mendeleeff (1905), Michelson (1907), G. W. Hill (1909), F. Galton (1910), G. H. Darwin (1911), F. Klein (1912), Thomson (1914), Lorentz (1918), Larmor (1921), Rutherford (1922), H. Lamb (1923), Einstein (1925), Planck (1929), W. H. Bragg (1930), C. T. R. Wilson (1935), Bohr (1938), Langevin (1940), G. I. Taylor (1944), Hardy (1947 - he died on the day it was to be presented), Chadwick (1950), Dirac (1952), Whittaker (1954), R. A. Fisher (1955), Blackett (1955), Littlewood (1958), H. Jeffreys (1960), S. Chapman (1964), W. L. Bragg (1966), Mott (1972), Hodge (1974), D. Hodgkin (1976), Chandrasekhar (1984), Atiyah (1988).
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The first Royal Medals were awarded to John Dalton and James Ivory. The first Royal Medal to be awarded in mathematics was given to George Boole in 1844. (This is stated in [MacHale], but Ivory, Hamilton and Fox Talbot preceded Boole - but perhaps their work was considered 'applied'.)
The Society has established a triennial Sylvester Medal for mathematics which was first awarded to Poincaré in 1901, followed by Cantor, Wirtinger, Baker, Glaisher, Darboux, MacMahon, Levi-Civita, Whitehead, W. H. Young, Whittaker, Russell, Love, Hardy, Littlewood, G. N. Watson, Mordell, Besicovitch, Titchmarsh, M. H. A. Newman, Philip Hall, Cartwright, Davenport, Temple, Cassels, D. G. Kendall, Higman, J. F. Adams, J. G. Thompson, C. T. C. Wall (1988), P. Whittle (1994).
The Michael Faraday Award for the furtherance of the public understanding of science was started in 1986. E. C. Zeeman received the 1988 award and Ian Stewart received the 1995 award.
The Society's premier lectureship in physical sciences is the Bakerian Lecture, begun in 1775, but very few have been mathematical, the only really mathematical ones being W. G. Adams (1875), G. H. Darwin (1891) and Atiyah (1975).
Henry Oldenburg was one of the first Secretaries in 1663-1677, with Wilkins in 1663-1668. Evelyn, Hooke, Halley, Brook Taylor, John Machin, J. Herschel, Roget, Stokes, Rayleigh, Larmor, Jeans, Hodge and Lighthill have also been Secretaries. Charles Hutton, Thomas Young and Rayleigh have been Foreign Secretaries. Spottiswoode and Kempe have been Treasurers. Halley was an editor of the Phil. Trans.
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Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was appointed Curator in Nov 1662, on Boyle's recommendation. He was expected to produce new experiments and devices on a regular basis. This was poorly paid, but gave him apartments at Gresham College. In 1664, John Cutler, a City merchant, founded the Cutlerian Lectures for Hooke. Six of these were given, starting in 1670, and were published in 1674-1678. In the first lecture of 1670, An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth from Observations, Hooke stated the law of universal gravitation, but without the inverse square term - though he later added this. He was later incensed with Newton for failure to acknowledge this, but Newton probably felt that the bare statement was not sufficient to warrant acknowledgement. In other lectures, Hooke described his invention of the balance watch, the clock driven telescope, the universal joint, and his discovery of Hooke's Law. Cutler apparently never paid the funds promised. In 1665, Hooke's Micrographia was the first work on microscopy and the source of the concept and term 'cell', and also suggested that light was a wave. In 1674, Hooke made the first Gregorian telescope and presented it to the Society. Hauksbee and Desaguliers were later Curators.
John Robertson, teacher of mathematics and the first to produce a slide rule with a runner attached, in 1775, was later Librarian of the Royal Society [Thompson, p. 7].
Pringle was forced out for supporting Franklin's pointed lightning rods in opposition to George III's belief that rounded or knobbed rods were better, and more patriotic. Banks's accession to PRS marked a long period of dominance by biologists, accentuated by Banks forcing Hutton out of the Foreign Secretaryship and the consequent withdrawal of many physical scientists from participation in RS activities [Anon: Memoir of the late Dr. Hutton].
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The Royal Society is filled with portraits, busts, manuscripts and other memorabilia of these and many other persons too numerous to mention. (See [Anon: Record, pp. 154-168], though much of the material described there was transferred to national museums during the 1968 move.) Newton presented his second telescope in 1671 and the Society was apparently unaware that he had made an earlier example in 1668 and it is not known what happened to the 1668 example. The example in the Society has a brass plate inscribed: The first reflecting telescope invented bi[sic] Sr Isaac Newton and made with his own hands in the year 1671. But recent study shows that the 1671 example perished - a 1731 inventory lists only its two mirrors, and these vanished sometime between 1765 and 1827. The telescope now in the Society was first mentioned in 1758 and was presented to the Society in 1766. It appears to contain some parts of his third telescope, made under his supervision in 1671-1672, see elsewhere in this gazetteer. It is probably the oldest surviving reflecting telescope, though its mirror is badly tarnished. It has a focal length of over 8" with the eyepiece corresponding placed. Newton's mirrors had focal length of 6-", and there is a plugged eyepiece hole at this distance. This third example was still with Newton in 1694 when David Gregory saw it and noted that the mirror had been damaged by Newton in trying to clean it. Even the first example magnified about 40 times, making it about as good as the best instrument that Galileo ever had. [Hall & Simpson.] In 1993, Heritage Instruments, with the Society's permission, began producing replicas of the telescope with focal length 6-" and magnification of 38, which can be obtained for £3995 (as of 1995) - the first example is in the Society's Library. The Society also has: a purported watch of Newton's and his death mask; several lenses made and signed by Christianus Huygens (1629-1695); Wren's dividers (but [Gunther (4), p. 52] says they are gone); a Tompion clock. They have the earliest, 1687, manuscript of Newton's Principia. The leaflet for their 1993 exhibition on timekeeping says the RS also has: Kater's invertible pendulum, used to measure gravity at various places in the early 19C; a Tompion clock; a chronometer used by Cook on his 2nd and 3rd voyages and another used on the 2nd voyage; the sundial carved into the wall of Woolsthorpe Manor by Newton as a boy. A catalogue of 1681 mentions: Boyle's airpump; Wilkins' airgun; Wren's raingauge; and a calculator of Hooke. [Eastman, p. 269] says they have a lock of Newton's hair. A copy of the bust of Ramanujan was presented in 1994 by S. Chandrasekhar. In 1769, the Society requested funds from George III to send an expedition to Tahiti to observe the Transit of Venus. This was Cook's first voyage. There was a surplus and the Society had a bust of George III made by Nollekens and this stands in the entrance hall.
The result of the expedition to measure the curvature of light was presented at a joint meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society on 6 Nov 1919 - presumably in Burlington House. Whitehead and Lodge were present [Whitrow, pp. 43-44].
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The Royal Society Of Arts at 8 John Adam Street, off the Strand, has always been interested in practical as well as fine art. In c1780, James Barry covered the Great Hall with large paintings. The south wall shows Elysium and includes: Archimedes, Francis Bacon, Roger Bacon, Copernicus, Descartes, Galileo, Newton and Thales. [Fahie, pp. 87-88.]
One of the earliest mathematical societies, called 'The Mathematical Society'
or 'The Spitalfields Mathematical Society' was founded in 1717 at the Monmouth's
Head, Monmouth St. (now covered by a brewery) and had rooms at 36/36a Crispin
St. (now part of Spitalfields Market), just a few blocks east of Bishopsgate
St., from 1793 to 1843. The Society amalgamated with the Royal Astronomical
Society in 1846. One member, the last president, Benjamin Gompertz, joined
the London Mathematical Society in the year of its founding, 1865, but died
within the year. [Cassels (2)]
Written by David Singmaster. Last updated on 28th February 2003 by TM (A.Mann@gre.ac.uk). Copyright © BSHM and David Singmaster 1998 - 2003. All rights reserved.
The British Society for the History of Mathematics is registered as a company limited by guarantee, no. 3326816, and as a charity, no. 1061229. Its registered office is c/o Andrew Thurburn & Co, 38 Tamworth Road, Croydon, Surrey CR0 1XU, UK.