William Oughtred (1574-1660) was a priest who dedicated himself to mathematics, a branch that he learned of his own free will. His main contribution to the discipline was to have invented the sign that refers to a multiplication (x).
In addition, he was the one who created the slide rule. This tool allowed him to multiply and divide much faster. It was a very important contribution to science and it also had a great impact among engineers.
Source:, via Wikimedia Commons.
Until the 20th century, it was very common for scientists from different areas to use slide rules when conducting their studies. Later, this tool was clearly displaced and electronic calculators gained a presence in the world of science.
Biography
On his birth certificate it appeared that William Oughtred was born in a small town west of London named Eton. His baptism occurred on March 5, 1574, so his birth must have occurred during the previous days.
Personal life
Her father was Benjamin Oughtred, a reverend who taught grammar classes at King's College of Our Lady of Eton, also known simply as Eton College. Benjamin also took charge of the records at the institution, which only received male students, a characteristic that remains to this day.
In 1606, when he was 32 years old, he married. In the records that historians have been able to find, there are only data on one of her children, but it has been said that she had a total of 12 (four women and the rest were men).
It was also said that two of his sons were engaged in the profession of watchmakers and that one of his daughters married an Englishman named Brookes. Some letters that have been found, written by Oughtred, refer to his partner and his children, but without giving further details. Little was known about his wife and his family life in general.
Death
William Oughtred died when he was 86 years old, on June 30, 1660. He was buried in the old Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Albury, a city north of London and where he served as rector for several years.
Studies
He received his first teachings at Eton College, where his father worked. Then, at just 15 years old, she continued her education at King's College, Cambridge University. He graduated in 1596 and completed a master of art.
Although his true passion was mathematics, Oughtred was trained as a philosopher and as a theologian. During his university stage, he used the evening hours to expand his mathematical knowledge. Something he continued to do when he was ordained as a priest.
By the time it was titled, he had finished his first written work on mathematics, the title of which was the Easy Method of Mathematical Marking.
Professional life
He was an episcopal minister from 1603, a regular position for those who managed to accumulate much knowledge during their education. A year later he was an adjunct priest in Shalford, a town southwest of London.
By 1610 he was appointed as rector at Albury, a position he held until his death.
Maths
Oughtred never received a mathematics education, his knowledge was acquired because he was self-taught on the subject. Thanks to the publications he made, he could be respected and enjoyed a certain influence among mathematicians of the time.
Due to his role as a priest, Oughtred had to divide his time between his two passions. He never neglected his church work, but he always found a way to teach some of his knowledge to other people.
Pupils
When he was almost 50 years old, he began teaching mathematics to some interested in the subject. Those were private classes that he taught during the time. He was in charge of teaching people who in the future also had an important role in this branch of science.
One of his most famous students was Richard Delamain who worked on regular calculus and sundials. John Wallis was commissioned to design the infinity symbol. Christopher Wren had a major impact on architecture. They were all students of Oughtred, although he never charged for his work.
John Wallis, for example, named his mentor in several of the works he published and even compared him to other mathematicians of great importance to the scientific world.
Plays
One of Oughtred's most popular books was Key Mathematics. The publication only had 88 pages and was a summary of all the knowledge that English had acquired with his self-taught training.
It was born as a tool to teach one of his students everything related to arithmetic and algebra. Oughtred wrote the book in 1628, but it was only published in 1631. It was written in Latin and ran in several editions.
The popularity that Oughtred achieved allowed him to continue publishing more works. He wrote Circles of proportion and the horizontal instrument, Trigonometry, The solution of spherical triangles, among many other works.
He did not focus exclusively on mathematics, also touching on topics related to clocks and solar position.
Contributions
Without a doubt, one of his main contributions was evidenced in the evolution of mathematical notation. He introduced the symbol for multiplication, to indicate proportions and the difference between two values.
The German Gottfried Leibniz, renowned philosopher and mathematician, was against the symbol proposed by Oughtred for multiplication since there are no major differences with the letter x. In the end, the English proposals were accepted worldwide and are still used by mathematicians today.
His creation of the slide rule was also a breakthrough for the scientific field. He designed different models (linear and circular), although each discipline was better adapted to a style. It was the tool of choice for calculations in all branches of science.
The slide rule even gained much more importance a century later, thanks to the Industrial Revolution.
His speech was sometimes considered not to be straightforward and obviously not suitable for everyone. This did not prevent its role in the evolution of mathematics and its influence in Europe specifically from being recognized.
References
- Aubrey, J., Hearne, T. and Walker, J. (1813). Letters written by eminent persons in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row.
- Cajori, F. (1916). William Oughtred, a great seventeenth-century teacher of mathematics. Chicago-London: The Open court Publishing Co.
- Granger, J. and Baynes, W. (1824). A biographical history of England, from Egbert the Great to the revolution. London: Printed for William Baynes and Son.
- Pycior, H. (2006). Symbols, impossible numbers, and geometric entanglements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Willmoth, F. (1993). Sir Jonas Moore. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.