Workshop announcement. Charles Hutton (1737–1823): being mathematical in the Georgian period
 
Thursday 17 and Friday 18 December 2015: 10am–5pm
All Souls College, Oxford
 
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. 

Places are available for observers; there is no fee for attendance. Unfortunately accommodation cannot be provided for observers.

To reserve a place, or for any enquiries, please contact [log in to unmask]

Provisional programme

	Nerida Ellerton, Illinois State University: "Beginnings of Modern Secondary School Mathematics: The Royal Mathematical School at Christ’s Hospital, London, 1673–1798"

	Ken Clements, Illinois State University: "A Galaxy of Stars in the Royal Mathematical School at Christ’s Hospital, London, 1673–1798"

	Olivier Bruneau, Université de Lorraine: "Mathematics and its diffusion in British military academies"

	Jo Elcoat, University of Leeds: "Mathematical-philosophical education at Robert Thomson’s Military Academy, 1793–99"

	Jenny Bulstrode, University of Cambridge: "The promiscuous exercises of the Woolwich bois boys"

	Emily Winterburn: title tbc

	Rebekah Higgitt, University of Kent "'Intimate friends': Charles Hutton and Nevil Maskelyne"

	Benjamin Wardhaugh, University of Oxford: title tbc

	Shelley Costa, Swarthmore College: title tbc

	Alex Craik, University of St Andrews: "Learning from the French: some views and reviews"

	Mary Croarken: "A Mathematical Workforce: Maskelyne’s computers and assistants"

	Alan Morton: "The Measure of Man"

	Jane Wess, University of Edinburgh: "Field Instruments and Mathematical Relationships in the Early 19th Century"