A biography of Charles Hutton (1737-1823)

Lead Research Organisation: University of Oxford
Department Name: History Faculty

Abstract

Charles Hutton (1737-1823), teacher and promoter of mathematics, was best known during his lifetime as Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. During a long and extremely active career he was also a trainer of mathematics teachers, the head of a 'writing and mathematical school' in Newcastle, and Foreign Secretary to the Royal Society of London. In origin he was the son of a Durham colliery overseer; in his youth he had worked down the pits himself.

Hutton was a prolific author and editor, and his vast printed output is a rich mine for historians of science and mathematics. He was the editor of the popular Ladies' Diary, an annual compilation of mathematical and verbal puzzles; he also worked on the annual Nautical Almanack, whose tables of lunar positions effectively solved the problem of determining the longitude for ships at sea. His Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary (1795-6) is still an important source for information about mathematics and mathematicians in the period; his Course of Mathematics was many times reprinted, and was translated into various languages, including Arabic.

At Woolwich, Hutton trained a generation of artillery officers and military engineers from 1773 until his retirement in 1807. He performed experiments, refined theoretical results, and oversaw a revolution in attitudes to the use of instruments, mathematical tables and up-to-date scientific results by artillery officers. He may justly be said to have played a key 'back-room' role in the projection of British power around the globe in the late Georgian period.

At the Royal Society Hutton was awarded the Copley medal for his work on ballistics; later, in 1783-4 he was involved in a celebrated dispute with the Society's President Joseph Banks, ultimately concerned with the place of mathematics and mathematicians in the Society. Hutton left the Royal Society as a result, but the debate would continue, and ultimately the views of Hutton and his supporters would come to determine the role of mathematics in British science over the following decades. Hutton's writings and educational work would become an important part of the reform of British mathematics in the early nineteenth century.

No British mathematician of his generation had such an impact on his field or the wider world, yet Hutton has never been the subject of a book-length biography. The proposed project will involve approximately nine months of intensive work on archival and printed sources. Important archives for this project are in the Royal Society and at Sandhurst; Hutton's was a well-documented life, at least from his 1773 move to London. There will follow an equal period of writing-up, to produce a rigorous but accessible biography of this remarkable individual, together with associated research papers addressing wider themes arising from the research. As the most visible mathematical writer in Britain during the late Georgian period, Hutton serves as a lens through which this project will address wider questions about the changing role of mathematics in the period, some of which will be more appropriately addressed outside the biography.

Planned Impact

Non-academic beneficiaries will be first and most importantly readers of the biography of Hutton, the main research output of this project. It is intended that this should be a commercial book for the general reader with sales of perhaps 10,000 copies. The PI has experience in this genre of writing: his recent book on Georgian almanacs and popular mathematics, published by Oxford University Press, received enthusiastic notices in publications such as New Scientist and the Literary Review. Readers will be enthusiasts for British history and the Georgian period in particular, those interested in mathematics and its history, and those interested in military history. The book will also have a special appeal to readers with a connection to the places Hutton grew up and worked in his early life: Durham, Newcastle and the North-East of England more generally.

Less directly, this project will also be of benefit to curators at institutions concerned with the history of science or of military history: the Science Museum in London, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, and the National Army Museum, for instance. Through the curators of these and other collections this piece of research will impact on narratives presented to the public about the development of British mathematics and science during the enlightenment period, and their effect on military developments. It will thus be of benefit to those who wish to ponder how science and mathematics change, and how they have affected British national life.
 
Description The subject of this study, Charles Hutton (1737-1823) was responsible for a number of scientific and mathematical discoveries and innovations, including the use of contour lines on geographical maps, the factors which affect the speed of a cannon ball, the mean density of the earth, and a number of technical results in algebra and geometry. He also did pioneering work on the history of mathematics. Because of developments since his lifetime, most of these achievements have been largely forgotten. Finally I have established that the celebrated dispute at the Royal Society in 1784 arose from a range of factors, not the 'mathematicians' mutiny' that has often been proposed.
Exploitation Route There is potential for a good deal more work on the mathematical culture of Georgian Britain: Hutton was the last great exponent of that culture, and by the end of his life it had largely been replaced by a new mathematical culture imported from the continental academies. I believe my findings about Hutton's relationship with the Royal Society should also become part of the narrative about that Society in this period.
Sectors Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

 
Description A commercial publisher has commissioned a general-audience biography of Charles Hutton based on the research done during the period of this award. This was published in February 2019; reviews appeared in national and regional newspapers. A paperback edition appeared in February 2020 and a German translation in February 2021. A summary biography of Hutton also appeared as an article in the magazine 'History Today'.
First Year Of Impact 2019
Sector Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

 
Title Hutton correspondence calendar 
Description A calendar of the surviving correspondence of Charles Hutton (1737-1823): over 100 surviving letters in about 30 separate archives. Metadata deposited in Early Modern Letters Online and the Oxford Research Archive. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The collection of this information, together with transcriptions of the letters, has transformed my work on Hutton's biography and my understanding of how mathematical networks of communication worked in this period. 
URL http://www.culturesofknowledge.org/?p=7488
 
Title Hutton's Books 
Description Online searchable catalogue of the library of Charles Hutton. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2021 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact N/A 
URL http://www.benjaminwardhaugh.co.uk/HuttonsBooks/
 
Description Being mathematical in the Georgian world 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 25 people including academics and members of the public attended a 2-day research workshop in Oxford on "Charles Hutton (1737-1823): Being mathematical in the Georgian world". There were twelve talks and plenty of opportunity for lively discussion, with positive feedback from attendees about the impact on their research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Charles Hutton and the Dissensions (talk) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The PI gave a talk in Oxford titled "Charles Hutton and the 'Dissensions' of 1783-84" to an audience mainly of academics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Charles Hutton, 'one of the greatest mathematicians in Europe' (talk) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The PI gave a talk in titled "Charles Hutton, 'one of the greatest mathematicians in Europe'" to the Oxford Research Forum in history of mathematics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Communicating with France (talk) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The PI gave a talk titled "Communicating with France: British mathematics in the period of Charles Hutton" at an in memoriam conference in Oxford, to a mainly academic audience of about 40.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Public lecture: Hutton's anniversary 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Public lecture at the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society, marking the 200th anniversary of Charles Hutton's death.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Success, failure and change in Georgian mathematics (talk) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The PI gave a talk entitled "Success, failure and change in Georgian mathematics" to the Oxford seminar in the History of the Exact Sciences.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017