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Charles Hutton (1737–1823): being mathematical in the Georgian period

Thursday and Friday 17 and 18 December 2015
All Souls College, Oxford

Second Call for Papers

Charles Hutton was a Tyneside coal hewer, Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, Fellow of the Royal Society, and an author whose books were read across the entire English-speaking world. His was one of the more spectacular examples of the power of mathematics to change individual lives in the Georgian period. In 1783–4 his celebrated row with Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, crystallised debates about the nature of British science and the place of mathematics within it. His publications, including his textbooks and his celebrated mathematical dictionary, were widely read into the second half of the nineteenth century, and attracted translations into at least five languages: but they also exemplified the limitations of mathematics as a subject for polite discourse and the limitations of British mathematics in the period of fluxions.

This workshop is part of an AHRC-funded project on Charles Hutton and his mathematics. It will explore Hutton's life, location and legacy, and the ambitions, limitations, and changing place in culture of British mathematics in his period. 

Confirmed speakers:

Shelley Costa
Mary Croarken
Rebekah Higgitt
Benjamin Wardhaugh
Emily Winterburn

Proposals for papers are invited on all aspects of mathematical culture in the Georgian period. Talks on cognate topics in mathematics education, mathematics at the Royal Society, the relationship of mathematics to the sciences and military mathematics are particularly welcome. Proposals should include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a brief CV, and should be emailed to [log in to unmask] by 1 September 2015. The conference can provide accommodation and contribute to travel costs for speakers.