Gunpowder and Geometry
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a plan to honour their old friend: ‘Bust of Dr. Hutton’, The Gentleman’s Magazine 91 (1821), 452; Tribute of Respect, 2, 3.
Subscriptions poured in: Tribute of Respect, 5–7.
anxiety among the subscribers: Tribute of Respect, 2; obituary of Charles Hutton in the Literary Gazette (1 February 1823), 75–6 at 76.
The bust took up its station: obituary of Charles Hutton in the Literary Gazette (1 February 1823), 75–6 at 75.
Lord Eldon: Letter of Lord Eldon to Henry Hutton, 3 Feb 1823, printed in Bruce, Memoir, 46–7.
the Council slate at the Royal Society: Royal Society, JBO/43, 522 (30 November 1822); Literary Chronicle, 7 December 1822, 781.
Hutton never attended a meeting: Royal Society, CMO/10.
‘quite the old man’: letter of Charles Hutton to John Bruce, c. 1815, extract printed in Bruce, Memoir, 32–3, also 37; letter of Margaret Hutton to Charles Blacker Vignoles, 14 Mar 1814, Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letter 38; Charles Hutton to Catherine Hutton, 26 Jan 1819, Wellcome Collection, MS 5270 no. 35.
the continuing vivacity: Catherine Hutton to Charles Hutton, 4 Nov 1821, printed in Catherine Hutton, Reminiscences, 180.
later in 1819 … his health improved: Letters of Margaret Hutton to Charles Blacker Vignoles, 11 Aug 1814; of Isabella Hutton to Charles Blacker Vignoles, 24 Mar 1815; of Margaret Hutton to Charles Blacker Vignoles, 3 Aug 1816; of Mr Leybourn to Charles Blacker Vignoles, 26 Apr 1819; of Mr Leybourn to Charles Blacker Vignoles and Mary Vignoles, 13 Sep 1819, Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letters 72, 80, 122, 187, 189.
One visitor in the spring: obituary of Charles Hutton in the Literary Gazette (1 February 1823), 75–6.
the happiest year of his life: obituary of Hutton in The European Magazine (June 1823), 483–7 at 484.
In the winter of 1822: Bruce, Memoir, 46.
a letter from the Corporation of London: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 225.
around four on Monday morning: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 225.
He was buried the next day: May, Charlton, 69.
Epilogue
Dr. Hutton is gone: John MacCulloch, The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland (London, 1824), vol. 1, p. 435.
condolences from both the Duke of Wellington: Catherine Hutton, Reminiscences, 178.
Charles Hutton Potts: Report of resignation in Newcastle Courant (23 October 1863); various works of Charles Hutton Lear in for instance the National Portrait Gallery, http://www.npg.org.uk; Charles Hutton Dowling, Metric Tables (London, 1864).
This country shall entwine: Charlotte Caroline Richardson, Elegy on Charles Hutton, The Ladies’ Diary (1824), 18–19 at 19.
one of the most successful promoters: Obituaries of Hutton in The Morning Post, 28 January 1823; and in The Literary Chronicle 5 (1 February 1823), 77; Humphrey Davy, Discourse of the President … on the award of the Copley Medal to John Pond, Esq (London, 1823) 59; review of Hutton, Tracts (1812) in Quarterly Review (1813), 400–18, at 418.
Henry Hutton retired to Ireland: Rogers, ‘Register of the Collegiate Church of Crail’, 329; obituary of Henry Hutton in The Gentleman’s Magazine (December 1827), 561–2.
a mass of papers: Catherine Hutton, Reminiscences, 196–7, 202; Rogers, ‘Register of the Collegiate Church of Crail’, 330; H.J.C. Grierson, D. Cook and W.M. Parker, Letters of Sir Walter Scott (London, 1932–7), vol. 11, pp. 295–6 and vol. 12, pp. 376–7; Summary Catalogue of the Advocates’ Manuscripts (Edinburgh, 1971), 79, 254, 255, 599.
Isabella lived quietly on: Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letters 255–84, passim; Catherine Hutton, Reminiscences, 172–97; note on the two surviving Hutton daughters, Isabella and Catherine, in The Monthly Magazine 26 (August 1838), 206–7; notice of Isabella’s death in The Gentleman’s Magazine (June 1839), 666.
Eleanor … married for a third time: Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, family tree by K.H. Vignoles and letters 566, 863; notice of death in The Gentleman’s Magazine (4 March 1850), 454.
Vignoles, still in America: Letter of Charles Blacker Vignoles to Mary Vignoles, 25 March 1823, Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letter 261.
Henry Hutton would never entirely forgive: Hall-Patch, ‘Charles Blacker Vignoles’, 241; but compare the more positive view expressed (after Henry Hutton’s death) in a letter of his widow to Charles Blacker Vignoles, 20 Aug 1827, Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letter 365.
Isabella had always had a soft spot: Letter of Charles Blacker Vignoles to Mary Vignoles, 3 Jun 1823, Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letter 271 and subsequent letters 271–84 bearing on Vignoles’s relationship with Isabella, passim.
‘in memory of my Grandfather’: British Library, Add. MS 58203, Charles Blacker Vignoles, diary: 18 November 1824.
Vignoles’s career took flight: Hall-Patch, ‘Charles Blacker Vignoles’, 238; O.J. Vignoles, Charles Blacker Vignoles, passim and K.H. Vignoles, Charles Blacker Vignoles, passim; ‘Presentation to the Royal Society’, Science, New Series, vol. 96 (4 September 1942), 224–5 at 225.
His domestic life was unhappy: K.H. Vignoles, Charles Blacker Vignoles, 61; Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, especially Letters 603, 642, 643 (quote).
Vignoles’s own daughter: K.H. Vignoles, Charles Blacker Vignoles, 79; Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, letters 683, 698, 699.
his cousin, Henry’s son: ‘Charles Hutton’s Descendants’, Notes and Queries 147 (1924), 53; two letters of Henry Hutton (Jr) bound with a copy of Bruce, Memoir in Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society, N925/1; ‘Charles Hutton’ in DNB 28 (1891), 351–3 at 352.
about forty-five thousand pounds: Letter of Charles Blacker Vignoles to Mary Vignoles, 9 Jul 1823, Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letter 286.
His will: The National Archives, PROB 11/1666/375, fol. 297v: Will of Charles Hutton, 27 Feb 1823.
some in the family resented: Letters of Mary Vignoles to Charles Blacker Vignoles, 15 Feb 1823 and of Charles Blacker Vignoles to Mary Vignoles, 25 Mar 1823, Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letters 258, 261; Woodhorn SANT/BEQ/26/1/7/98/a: note by Thomas Wilson of 11 July 1824.
a trust was set up: scattered references in Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, including Letters 304, 325, 336, 346, 348, 360, 361, 365, 396, 630/1, and in British Library, Add. MS 58203 (Vignoles’s diary), including entries for 9 Jan, 23 Jan and 2 Mar 1824. I am grateful to John Vignoles (personal communication) for further information.
he became the sole owner: That this was Isabella’s intention is suggested in a letter of Charles Blacker Vignoles to Mary Vignoles, 24 Jun 1823, Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letter 281; I have not traced Isabella’s will.
a notoriously methodical man: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 220.
There was even a diary: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 220, 221, 226–7.
Hutton’s novel eprouvette: Hutton, Tracts (1812), vol. 3, p. 157; Jones, Records of the RMA, 115, xiii.
His manuscript lectures on natural philosophy: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 222.
His contract with the Stationers’ Company: Records of the Stationers’ Company, Series I, Box B, folder 6, items i, iii and iv: draft contracts.
sorted and labelled at least some: Firepower MD 913/1 and 913/3, labelled for Gregory; a number of Hutton’s surviving letters are labelled with the names of their senders and dates in Hutton’s hand.
several more scientific items: Catalogue of a Miscellaneous Collection of Books: being the valuable and scientific library of the late Dr. Olinthus Gregory … which will be sold by auction by Messrs. Southgate and Son … on Thursday, March the 17th, 1842 and following day [London, 1842], 9, 24 (these items are now in Trinity College Cambridge, MS R.1.59), 25; London, Senate House Library MS 235 (Hutton’s translation from Tartaglia), endorsement on fol. 1r; MS 913B/3/1 (xiv, xv), letters of John Playfair to Charles Hutton, 12 Dec 1782, of Sir John Leslie to Charles Hutton, 14 Oct 1795, and of Charles Hutton to Francis Bai
ly, 1821: endorsements.
Gregory had the notion of working: Trinity College, Cambridge, MS R.1.59, fos. 179–217.
that Hutton’s diary would appear in print: Gregory, ‘Memoir’, 220; Bruce, Memoir, 1; Mackenzie, Historical Account of Newcastle, 560.
A few items turned up: A Catalogue of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Possession of J.O. Halliwell [n.p. n.d.], 6 (historical papers); [Sotheby], Catalogue of a Collection of Scientific and Historical Manuscripts [a portion of the collection of James Orchard Halliwell] [London, 1840], 12 (letters and papers on the history of logarithms); Original Letters, Manuscripts, and State Papers, Collected by William Upcott ([London], 1836), 45 (letters), 50 (assignments of copyrights); also A Bibliography of the Works of Sir Isaac Newton: together with a list of books illustrating his works with notes by George J. Gray (Cambridge, 1907), 26 (Hutton’s manuscript library catalogue).
‘arranging papers’: British Library, Add. MS 35071, 4, 12 and 24 January; also Add. MS 58203 (Vignoles’s diary), 2 and 4 February 1824: ‘very particular business for my Aunt’; letter of Charles Blacker Vignoles to the Marquis of Northampton, 25 Mar 1841, Portsmouth History Centre, Vignoles Papers, Letter 751 (quote); letter of Charles Blacker Vignoles to Francis Galton, 17 Nov 1865, London, University College archives, MS Galton 2/4/1/2/9 (quote).
part of Newcastle University: Wallis, ‘Mathematical Tradition’, 34.
His own houses on Woolwich Common: Saint and Guillery, ‘Woolwich Common’, 25–6; Jones, Records of the RMA, 111.
‘Military tactics have been much benefited’: obituary of Hutton in London Magazine 7 (March 1823), 368.
eminently contributed to awaken: Davy, Discourse of the President, 60.
utmost importance to the British nation: Review of Hutton, Dictionary in Critical Review 18 (November 1796), 302–5 at 304.
Davy’s reforms at the Society stalled: Knight, ‘Davy’.
‘science in England is not a profession’: Charles Babbage, The Exposition of 1851 (London, 1851), 189.
a ‘competent knowledge of the first book of Euclid’: Warwick, Masters of Theory, 64.
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society: The printed lists of fellows from this period do not mention Hutton; one is dated in February 1822, before his election, and one in February 1824, after his death: Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society 1/1, 225ff; 1/2, 523ff. See also www://ras.org.uk (election on 10 May 1822); Memoirs 1/1 (1822), 219, 222 (notice of gifts); Memoirs 1/2 (1825), 498 (mention of death), 515 (notice of gift).
dedication of a book to him: for instance Henry Clarke, A Dissertation on the Summation of Infinite Converging Series with Algebraic Divisors (London, 1779); William Marrat, Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Mechanics (Boston, 1810); Charlotte Caroline Richardson, Harvest; a poem: with other poetical pieces (London, 1818).
values of the Royal Society: Rebekah Higgitt, ‘Why I Don’t FRS my Tail: Augustus De Morgan and the Royal Society’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society 60 (2006), 253–9.
‘arch of equilibration’: Alberto Cecchi, ‘The “Arch of Equilibration” of Charles Hutton (1772)’, Meccanica 45 (2010), 829–33, esp. 832.
the torsion balance experiments of Cavendish: Jungnickel and McCormmach, Cavendish, 449–50; Francis Baily, ‘Experiments with the Torsion Rod for Determining the Mean Density of the Earth’, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society 14 (1843), 1–130 and i–cclviii, at 92–6; J.H. Poynting, The Mean Density of the Earth (London, 1894), 18; Smallwood, ‘Maskelyne’s 1774 Schiehallion Experiment’, 15, 28–30; John R. Smallwood, ‘John Playfair on Schiehallion, 1801–1811’, in C.L.E. Lewis and S.J. Knell, Making of the Geological Society of London (London, 2009), 279–97 at 293; Howse, Maskelyne, 141; G.S. Leadstone, ‘Maskelyne’s Schiehallion Experiment of 1774’, Physics Education 9 (1974), 452–8.
‘Unwin’s formula’: Robins Fleming, Six Monographs on Wind Stresses; wind pressure factors, specification (New York, 1915), 6. A discussion of the later use and extension of Hutton’s ballistics work is in David Aubin, ‘Ballistics, Fluid Mechanics, and Air Resistance at Gâvre, 1829–1915: doctrine, virtues, and the scientific method in a military context’, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 71 (2017), 509–42.
‘improving and simplifying’: Tribute of Respect, 2; cf. Margaret Baron, ‘Charles Hutton’ in DSB; D.E. Smith, History of Mathematics (Boston, 1923–5) vol. 2, p. 458.
‘the most useful and important’: ‘Memoir of the late Dr. Hutton’, The Gentleman’s Magazine (March 1823), 228–32 at 229.
four volumes of local Newcastle history: Sykes, Local Records (1824); Mackenzie, Historical Account of Newcastle; Boyle, Vestiges of Old Newcastle; Welford, Men of Mark.
a few reminiscences in manuscript: Woodhorn, SANT/BEQ/26/1/7/77. Thomas Wilson, notes on Mr. Kirkley’s reminiscences of Charles Hutton, 28 Mar 1822; SANT/BEQ/26/1/7/98/a. Thomas Wilson, notes including information about Charles Hutton. 11 Jul 1824; SANT/BEQ/26/1/8/584. Letter, S. Barrass to Thomas Wilson including George Parkin’s reminiscences of Charles Hutton. 1825.
Henry quashed the biography: H.P. Chanter, ‘Charles Hutton’s Descendants’, Notes and Queries 146 (June 1924), 471, citing an unnamed ‘old handbook on Newcastle’.
‘Collections relative to Charles Hutton’: Birmingham Archives, Heritage and Photography Service, MS 3597/103/3 (title page only).
The Course also went to America: Rickey and Shell-Gellasch, ‘Mathematics Education at West Point’.
Translations were arranged: All of these can be found in the catalogues of large libraries today; some of them are mentioned in J.F. Blumhardt, Catalogue of the Library of the India Office, vol. 2, part 5: Marathi and Gujarati Books (London, 1908), pp. 89, 91, 245–6; or Charles Ambrose Storey, Persian Literature: a bio-bibliographical survey, vol. 2, issue 1 (1927), 19.
A list of authors: A.G. Howson, ‘Charles Hutton’, in A History of Mathematics Education in England (Cambridge, 1982), 59–74 at 69.
John Henry Newman: Ian Turnbull Ker and Thomas Gornall (eds), The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman, vol. 7 (Oxford, 1978), p. 17, n. 1; Collected Works of Marx and Engels vol. 33 (New York, 1975), 522, 524 (n. 223).
‘an interesting and learned history’: ‘Charles Hutton’ in DNB vol. 28 (1891), 351–3 at 352.
Select Bibliography
The reader wishing to delve more deeply into Hutton and his world will find in the following books some of the more readable accounts of the topics and people concerned. A complete bibliography of the works cited in the notes can be found online at www.benjaminwardhaugh.co.uk, including a catalogue of Charles Hutton’s surviving manuscripts and a list of his published works. His surviving letters are edited in Benjamin Wardhaugh, The Correspondence of Charles Hutton (1737–1823): mathematical networks in Georgian Britain (Oxford, 2017).
Carman, W.Y. and Michael Roffe, The Royal Artillery (Reading, 1973).
Carter, Harold B., Sir Joseph Banks, 1743–1820 (London, 1988).
Colley, Linda, Britons: forging the nation (London, 2003).
Crookston, Peter, The Pitmen’s Requiem (Newcastle, 2010).
Freese, Barbara, Coal: a human history (Cambridge, MA, 2003).
Graham, C.A.L., The Story of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (Woolwich, 1928, 4th edn 1983).
Higgitt, Rebekah, ed., Maskelyne: Astronomer Royal (London, 2014).
Hogg, O.F.G., Artillery: its origin, heyday and decline (London, 1970).
Howse, Derek, Nevil Maskelyne: the seaman’s astronomer (Cambridge, 1989).
Hughes, B.P., British Smooth-Bore Artillery: the muzzle loading artillery of the 18th and 19th centuries (London, 1969).
Jungnickel, Christa and Russell McCormmach, Cavendish: the experimental life (Lewisburg, PA, 1999).
Lewis, C.L.E. and S.J. Knell, The Making of the Geological Society of London (London, 2009).
Moffat, Alistair and George Rosie, Tyneside: a history of Newcastle and Gateshead from earliest times (Edinburgh, 2005).
O’Brian,
Patrick, Joseph Banks: a Life (London, 1987).
Seymour, W.A. and J.H. Andrews, A History of the Ordnance Survey (Folkestone, 1980).
Shepperd, G.A., Sandhurst: the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and its predecessors (London, 1980).
Smith, Ken and Jean Smith, The Great Northern Miners (Newcastle, 2008).
Southey, Roz, Margaret Maddison and David Hughes, The Ingenious Mr Avison: making music and money in eighteenth-century Newcastle (Newcastle, 2009).
Uglow, Jenny, Nature’s Engraver: a life of Thomas Bewick (London, 2006).
Vignoles, Keith Hutton, Charles Blacker Vignoles, romantic engineer (Cambridge, 1982).
Wardhaugh, Benjamin, Poor Robin’s Prophecies: a curious almanac, and the everyday mathematics of Georgian Britain (Oxford, 2012).
Warwick, Andrew, Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the rise of mathematical physics (Chicago, 2003).
Image Credits
Figure 1, page 4
J.R. Boyle, Vestiges of Old Newcastle and Gateshead (Newcastle, 1890), p. 150.
Photograph by the author from a copy in the author’s collection.
Figure 2, page 15
The Condition and Treatment of the Children employed in the Mines and Collieries of the United Kingdom (London, 1842), frontispiece.
Wellcome Collection. CC BY.
Figure 3, page 20
George Fisher, The Instructor (London, 1760), frontispiece.
World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo.
Figure 4, page 25
J. Draper, Young Students’ Pocket Companion (Whitehaven, 1772), frontispiece.
The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford: (OC) 181. G. 122.
Figure 5, page 30–1
Nathaniel and Samuel Buck, The South-East Prospect of Newcastle Upon Tyne (1745).
© Image; Crown Copyright: UK Government Art Collection March 2014.
Figure 6, page 44–5
Charles Hutton, A Plan of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Newcastle, 1772), detail.
The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford: Gough Maps Northumberland 20.