‘We are at a loss to account’: Review of Hutton, Bridges in The Critical Review 34 (November 1772), 374–6 at 376.
Older copies of the original Diary: Charles Hutton, The Diarian Miscellany (London, 1775), vol. 1, p. iii.
George Coughron: Richard Welford, Men of Mark ’Twixt Tyne and Tweed (London, 1895), vol. 1, pp. 634–7; Horsley, Eighteenth-Century Newcastle, 29–34.
probably Hutton himself: ‘Biographical Anecdotes’, 63.
Samuel Clarke launched a Diarian Repository: Hutton, Tracts (1812), vol. 3, pp. 381–2. An account of Clarke’s attacks on various mathematicians in the pages of various periodicals appears in T.T. Wilkinson, ‘Notae Mathematicae No. IV’, Mechanic’s Magazine 61 (1854), 243–6.
badly rattled: Archibald, ‘Minor English Mathematical Serials’, 382, citing Hutton’s annotations on copies of the Miscellany.
numbers of his Miscellany were delayed: Advert for no. 3 of the Miscellany, General Evening Post, 25 February 1772.
Clarke’s Repository abruptly ceased: The Diarian Repository; or, Mathematical Register (London, 1774), title page indicating coverage of the Diary only up to 1760.
the publisher asked one pound nine shillings: Advert for the Miscellany in the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, 6 March 1776.
heard from a friend: ‘Charles Hutton’ in Leybourn, Mathematical Repository, 191; Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 206.
a public competition … ‘merit alone’: ‘Memoir of the late Dr. Hutton’, The Gentleman’s Magazine (March 1823), 228–32 at 229.
‘it is interest alone’: quoted in Williams, Life in Georgian England, 41.
public examinations at the British universities: Andrew Warwick, Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the rise of mathematical physics (Chicago, 2003), 118–22.
‘without any interest’: Public Characters, vol. 2, p. 108.
Northumberland was a prominent Tory: Woodhorn, SANT/BEQ/26/1/8/584: Letter of S. Barrass to Thomas Wilson, 1825; John Cannon, ‘Percy [formerly Smithson], Hugh, first duke of Northumberland (bap. 1712, d. 1786), politician’ in ODNB.
the Earl of Sandwich: Letter from Isaac Cookson Esq to Mr Thomas Hodgson, printed in Bruce, Memoir, 15; N.A.M. Rodger, ‘Montagu, John, fourth earl of Sandwich (1718–1792), politician and musical patron’ in ODNB.
William Emerson: Bruce, Memoir, 15–17.
names he knew: Public Characters, vol. 2, p. 109.
Other candidates: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 206; Public Characters, vol. 2, p. 110.
The questions: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 207; Public Characters, vol. 2, pp. 110–11.
A persistent rumour: Woodhorn, SANT/BEQ/26/1/8/584: Letter of S. Barrass to Thomas Wilson, 1825.
particular recommendation: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 207; Public Characters, vol. 2, p. 111.
the school in Westgate Street: Adverts in the Newcastle Courant, 5 June and 10 July 1773.
The coach journey: Moffat and Rosie, Tyneside, 210; letters of William Emerson to R. Harrison, 25 Jan 1774 and of Charles Hutton to William Armstrong, 20 Apr 1822, printed (extracts) in Bruce, Memoir, 16–17, 42–3.
Almost a million tons of coal: Fordyce, A History of Coal, 105, 108.
4 Professor
Britain’s biggest munitions manufactory: Andrew Saint and Peter Guillery, Survey of London volume 48: Woolwich (Yale, 2012), chapter 3 (‘The Royal Arsenal’): online draft available at https://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/research/survey-of-london/woolwich/documents/48.3_The_Royal_Arsenal.pdf, 6–7; O.F.G. Hogg, The Royal Arsenal: its background, origin, and subsequent history (London and New York, 1963), vol. 1, p. 493, vol. 2, pp. 1289, 1292.
The Royal Military Academy: http://www.royal-arsenal-history.com/royal-ar-senal-timeline.html; W.D. Jones, Records of the Royal Military Academy (Woolwich, 2nd edn, 1895), 4, 8.
fires or unplanned explosions …: Hogg, The Royal Arsenal vol. 1, 460–63; Saint and Guillery, ‘The Royal Arsenal’, 27.
In the warren, or park: ‘Woolwich’ (unpaginated) in The Copper-Plate Magazine (London, 1792–1802).
His house needed ten pounds’ worth of repairs: Hogg, The Royal Arsenal, vol. 1, 380, citing London, Public Record Office, WO/47/81, p. 491 (28 June 1773).
Hutton’s family didn’t at first accompany him: See Chapter 5.
a sort of regimental university: Jones, Records of the RMA, 1; Hogg, The Royal Arsenal, vol. 1, 345–6; G.A. Shepperd, Sandhurst: The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and its Predecessors (London, 1980), 11.
The chief master, Allen Pollock: Jones, Records of the RMA, 18–20, 22; Hogg, The Royal Arsenal vol. 1, 379–80.
Reverend William Green: Jones, Records of the RMA, 22.
predictable problems with their behaviour: Jones, Records of the RMA, 6, 9 (quote), 13, 15, 24, 25.
Window-smashing. ‘Pelting’: 9 (swimming), 15, 26 (hallooing), 13 (windows), 27 (pelting), 6 (middle finger); F.G. Guggisberg, ‘The Shop’: the story of the Royal Military Academy (London, 1900), 20 (fun).
The theory classes: Jones, Records of the RMA, 2, 11.
‘overcoming by resourcefulness’: C.A.L. Graham, The Story of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (Woolwich, 1928, 4th edn 1983), 22.
Cannon up to ten feet long: O.F.G. Hogg, Artillery: its origin, heyday and decline (London, 1970), 61.
Furious speeds were possible: B.P. Hughes, British Smooth-Bore Artillery: the muzzle loading artillery of the 18th and 19th centuries (London, 1969), 47–9, 78; Graham, The Story of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, 14.
a full-scale attack: Jones, Records of the RMA, 2.
General Belford: Jones, Records of the RMA, 26.
‘went hand in hand’: John Gascoigne, Cambridge in the Age of the Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1989), 174–5, 297. See also Hans, New Trends, passim.
‘a way to settle in the Mind’: John Locke, ‘Of the Conduct of the Understanding’ in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke (London, 1706), 2–137, at 30 (7).
the so-called Dissenting Academies: Irene Parker, Dissenting Academies in England, their rise and progress and their place among the educational systems of the country (Cambridge, 1914), passim; David A. Reid, Science and Pedagogy in the Dissenting Academies of Enlightenment Britain (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999), iii, 1–2, 6.
William Green: Jones, Records of the RMA, 22.
illiterates were not supposed to be admitted: Jones, Records of the RMA, 17.
an entrance exam: Jones, Records of the RMA, 20.
by 1775 his Mensuration was a set text: Jones, Records of the RMA, 23.
Professor Pollock was pensioned off: Jones, Records of the RMA, 24; Hogg, The Royal Arsenal, vol. 1, p. 382.
William Green brought to a head: Jones, Records of the RMA, 24–5.
Sixteen companies of the Royal Artillery: Graham, The Story of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, 19.
the shortage of suitable candidates: Jones, Records of the RMA, 22.
cadets were being hurried through: Jones, Records of the RMA, 26 (quote), 28.
on probation to Hutton: Jones, Records of the RMA, 26.
Green was asked to help out: Jones, Records of the RMA, 23, 28, iii (appointment of Bonnycastle as additional mathematical master).
a pay rise: Jones, Records of the RMA, 48.
Discipline wasn’t improved: Jones, Records of the RMA, 28, 29.
a rumour went around: Shepperd, Sandhurst, 20–21; Jones, Records of the RMA, 27.
Another indirect consequence: Hogg, The Royal Arsenal, vol. 1, p. 451.
Cholick Lane … ‘Horrid Smells’: Saint and Guillery, ‘The Royal Arsenal’, 27; Hogg, The Royal Arsenal, vol. 1, p. 463.
chronic headaches: Guggisberg, The Shop, 34; see also Thomas Simpson, ed. Charles Hutton, Select Exercises for Young Proficients in the Mathematicks (London, 1792), xxii.
5 Odd-Job Man
I am here almost as recluse: Letter of Charles Hutton to Robert Harrison, 13 Jan 1779, printed in Melmore, ‘Some Letters’, 71–4.
Hutton’s wife and children: Public Characters, vol. 2, p. 102.
One Newcastle historian was indiscreet: Mackenzie, Descriptive and Historical Account, 560.
some of his friends knew Margaret Ord: Letter of Charles Hutton to Nevil Maskelyne, 27 Jun 1785: Cambridge University Library, RGO 4/187/11, fos. 1–2.
There were Ords in the Royal Artillery: Jones, Records of the RMA, 74; Southey et. al., The Ingenious Mr Avison 24, 59–60; The History of the British Coal Industry vol. 2, p. 41; List of Fellows of the Royal Society 1660–2007, https://royalsociety.org/~/media/Royal_Society…/fellowship/Fellows1660-2007.pdf, 267.
Hutton’s son Harry was in Woolwich: List of Officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery from the Year 1716 to the present date (Woolwich, 1869), 15 (Henry Hutton, cadet, 2 March 1776; 2nd lieutenant 21 February 1777).
renting a set of rooms in the city: An Appeal to the Fellows of the Royal Society (London, 1784), 12.
a member of the committee: Public Characters, vol. 2, p. 109.
corresponding with Maskelyne’s assistant: Letter of Reuben Burrow to Charles Hutton, 24 Sep 1773: University College London, MS Graves 23/3/5.
‘most intimate friends’: Abraham Rees, The Cyclopaedia (London, 1820), vol. 22, s.v. Maskelyne.
Honest and popular: Mary Croarken, ‘Astronomical Labourers: Maskelyne’s assistants at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1765–1811’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 57 (2003), 285–98 at 287; Charles Hutton to Nevil Maskelyne, 27 Jun 1785: Cambridge University Library, RGO 4/187/11, fos. 1–2 (also Charles Hutton to Nevil Maskelyne, 27 Feb 1796: Cambridge University Library, RGO 4/187/26:1); Charles Hutton, Mathematical Tables (London, 1785), title page verso and 156, 168–9.
The Nautical Almanac: Mary Croarken, ‘Tabulating the Heavens: computing the nautical almanac in 18th-century England’, Annals of the History of Computing (2003); Mary Croarken, ‘Providing Longitude for All: the eighteenth century computers of the Nautical Almanac’, Journal of Maritime Research (October 2002).
The annual books of tables: Croarken, ‘Tabulating the Heavens’, 48, 50; Croarken, ‘Longitude for All’, 114.
a network of human ‘computers’: Croarken, ‘Tabulating the Heavens’, 54; also Mary Croarken, ‘Mary Edwards: computing for a living in 18th-century England’, Annals of the History of Computing (2003); Thomas Lindsay, ‘Historical Sketch of the Nautical Almanac’ parts V and VI, Transactions of the Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto 9 (1898), 2–10.
a ‘comparer’ kept an eye on things: Croarken, ‘Tabulating the Heavens’, 53, 57, 59; Croarken, ‘Longitude for All’, 112, 114, 116, 121.
Hutton did all this: Cambridge University Library, RGO 4/325 54v–55r, account books for the Nautical Almanac; Croarken, ‘Longitude for All’, 117.
to make contact with the Board of Longitude: Cambridge University Library, RGO 14/5, p. 344 (minutes of 6 March 1779); RGO 14/5, pp. 347–8 (minutes of 10 July 1779); RGO 14/17, pp. 337–9 (account with Charles Hutton, 1779–1782).
and as it seemed probable: Hutton, Miscellanea Mathematica, 341.
The Board of Longitude accepted: Cambridge University Library, RGO 14/6/2, 6–7 (minutes of 15 July 1780), 16 (3 March 1781), 29 (1 December 1781), 62 (6 March 1784); Croarken, ‘Tabulating the Heavens’, 55; Charles Hutton, Tables of the Products and Powers of Numbers (London, 1781), title page.
The preface displayed: Hutton, Tables (1781), a2r–b1v; review of Hutton, Tables (1781) in Monthly Review 73 (October 1785), 311–12 at 312.
notorious for its inaccuracy: Hutton, Tables (1785), v–vi, 40, 176, 342–3.
The manuscript of his logarithm tables: Cambridge University Library, RGO 4/326, with initial calculations and notes on the strategy of calculation (ff. 4r–33v and 54r–76r) plus fair copies (ff. 34r–35r, 104r–138r, 156v–232v) and extra rough or preliminary work (ff. 102r–v, 141v–154r). The initial calculations on ff. 10r–33v are in a different hand from the bulk of the document. Public Characters, vol. 2, p. 120.
for women to work as unpaid assistants: Croarken, ‘Mary Edwards’, 14; Museum of the Royal Artillery (‘Firepower’), MD 913/5 (manuscript account of Hutton’s artillery experiments, 1775, with insertions in another hand); letter of Charles Hutton to Catherine Hutton, 26 Jan 1819: Wellcome Collection, MS 5270 no. 35.
women were visible: Albree and Brown, ‘A Valuable Monument’, 17; Perl, ‘The Ladies’ Diary’, 37, 45–6; Wallis, ‘Mathematical Tradition’, 40; Costa, ‘The Ladies’ Diary’ (2002), 65–71; Croarken, ‘Mary Edwards’, 9.
Hutton added an enormous preface: See J.W.L. Glaisher, ‘The Earliest Use of the Radix Method for Calculating Logarithms, with historical notices relating to the contributions of Oughtred and others to mathematical notation’, The Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics 46 (1915), 125–97, at 173, 181–2 for a trace of Hutton reading and annotating in pursuit of this material.
delays in the calculating work: Hutton, Tables (1785), ix, states seven or eight years, but the evidence of the manuscript (Cambridge University Library, RGO 4/326, with dates from 28 September 1784 (fol. 4v) to May 1785 (fol. 76r)) strongly suggests this should be months.
a demanding programme of checking: Hutton, Tables (1785), vi.
a judicious arrangement of the subjects: Review of Hutton, Tables (1785) in Critical Review 62 (July and August 1786), 13–17 and 113–17 at 115 (quote); also in New Review (1785), 11–15 and Monthly Review 74 (May 1786), 344–6.
some favourable notices: Notices of Hutton, Mathematical Miscellany in The London Review 3 (June 1776), 480–81 and The Town and Country Magazine 8 (June 1776), 324.
he was approached by the Stationers’ Company: Archibald, ‘Minor English Mathematical Serials’, 381, 383; Public Characters, vol. 2, pp. 113–14; Stationers’ Company of London, The Records of the Stationers’ Company 1554–1920 (Cambridge, 1985) Court book M, 483; Court Book O, 77; Series I, Box B, folder 6, items i, iii and iv: drafts dated 22 December 1786, then 1787; unnumbered items in Series I, Box C, folder 4; A Catalogue of the Curious Mathematical, &c Books of the Late Mr. Edw. Rollinson [London, 1775], title page; letter of Charles Hutton to Robert Harrison, 19 Mar 1781, printed in Melmore, ‘Some Letters’, 78–9.
‘The enigma on a Candlestick’: The Ladies’ Diary (1775), 31.
reviewed mathematical books: Hutton, Tracts, Mathematical and Philosophical (London 1786), 93; Public Characters, vol. 2, p. 114; letter of Charles Hutton to Robert Harrison, 4 Aug 1779, printed in Melmore, ‘Some Letters’, 74–6 at 75.
proposed for fellowship of the Royal Society: London, Royal Society, EC/1774/18.
attended one meeting of the Society out of two: An Appeal, 12.
Maskelyne had a specific project in hand: Nevil Maskelyne, ‘A Proposal for Measuring the Attraction of Some Hill in this Kingdom by Astronomical Observations’, Philosophical Transactions 65 (1775), 495–9 at 496 (quote).
Charles Mason … Reuben Burrow: Nevil Maskelyne, ‘An Account of Observations Made on the Mountain Schehallien for Finding its Attraction’, Philosophical Transactions 65 (1775), 500–42 at 502 (quote); John Pringle, A Discourse on the Attraction of Mountains (London, 1775), 28.
Maskelyne himself declined: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 211; London, Royal Society, CMO 6, 311 (24 April 1777); 333 (18 June 1778).
immense labour: Letter of Charles Hutton to Robert Harrison, 4 Aug 1779, printed in Melmore, ‘Some Letters’, 74–6.
contour lines: Charles Hutton, ‘An Account of the Calculations Made from the Survey and Measures Taken at Schehallien, in Order to Ascertain the Mean Density of the Earth’, Philosophical Transactions 68 (1778), 689–788 at 756–7; John R. Smallwood, ‘Maskelyne’s 1774 Schiehallion Experiment Revisited’, Scottish Journal of Geology 43 (2007), 15–31 at 19.
‘weighing the earth’ remained: See chapter 11.
‘great quantities of metals’: Hutton, ‘Account of the Calculations’, 783.
the Woolwich Military Society
: Museum of the Royal Artillery (‘Firepower’), MD 913/5 Item 2., fol. 2r; George Smith, An Universal Military Dictionary (London, 1779), s.v. Gunnery; Francis Duncan, History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (3rd edn, London, 1879), 268–70; W. Johnson, ‘Charles Hutton, 1737–1823: The prototypical Woolwich Professor of mathematics’, Journal of Mechanical Working Technology 18 (1989), 195–230 at 224.
Thomas Blomefield: H.A. Baker, ‘Hutton’s Experiments at Woolwich, 1783–1791’, Journal of the Arms & Armour Society 11 (1985), 257–98 at 257, 269, 272, 274–5; Hutton, Tracts (1786), 104, 138, 208, 221.
Benjamin Robins: Benjamin Robins, New Principles of Gunnery (London, 1742); Brett D. Steele, ‘Muskets and Pendulums: Benjamin Robins, Leonhard Euler, and the ballistics revolution’, Technology and Culture 35 (1994), 348–82 at 349–54; Hogg, A History of Artillery, 46 (quote); H.M. Barkla, ‘Benjamin Robins and the Resistance of Air’, Annals of Science 30 (1973), 107–22 at 107 (quote).
Over the summer of 1775: Charles Hutton, ‘The Force of Fired Gun-Powder, and the Initial Velocities of Cannon Balls, Determined by Experiments’, Philosophical Transactions 68 (1778), 50–85.
cannon ball breaking to pieces: Hutton, Tracts (1786), 150–51, 193; Hutton, Tracts (1812), vol. 3, p. 83.
a first account: Museum of the Royal Artillery (‘Firepower’), MD 913/5: manuscript account of Hutton’s artillery experiments, 1775.
The paper was read to the Royal Society: Charles Hutton, ‘The Force of Fired Gun-Powder’, 50.
‘those parts of natural philosophy’: Charles Hutton, ‘The Force of Fired Gun-Powder’, 52.
‘with the more cordial affection’: John Pringle, A Discourse on the Theory of Gunnery (London, 1778), 33.
there was a select number: Public Characters, vol. 2, p. 118; T.E. Allibone, ‘The Diaries of John Byrom, M.A., F.R.S., and Their Relation to the Pre-History of the Royal Society Club’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 20 (1965), 162–83 at 182; Archibald Geikie, Annals of the Royal Society Club: the record of a London dining-club in the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries (London, 1917), 143; Charles Hutton, ‘Proof of the Failure of the Attempt to Restore Dr. Dodd to life’, The Newcastle Magazine 1/3 (March 1822), 127–8 at 127 (quote).
Gunpowder and Geometry Page 25