Difference between revisions of "Mathematical Tables"

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Mathematical Tables: Containing the Common, Hyperbolic, and Logistic Logarithms, also Sines, Tangents, Secants, and Versed Sines, Both Natural and Logarithmic

by Charles Hutton

Mathematical Tables
Title page from Mathematical Tables, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
Author	Charles Hutton
Editor	{{{editor}}}
Translator	{{{trans}}}
Published	London: Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson
Date	1785
Edition	Seventh
Language	English
Volumes	{{{set}}} volume set
Pages	xii, 343
Desc.	8vo (24 cm.)
Location	[[Shelf {{{shelf}}}]]
	[[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

Charles Hutton (1737-1823) was a British mathematician who published several very influential works throughout his lifetime. At age seven, Hutton injured his right elbow in a street fight which resulted in a permanent disability that caused him to be deemed unfit for hard labor.^[1] As a result of his disability, Hutton was sent to school rather than the coal mine where his father worked as a supervisor.^[2] After he received his education, Hutton was able to acquire a teaching position that came available when one of his former teachers moved to another school.^[3] His success as a teacher combined with his substantial publications quickly garnered him notice. He was appointed the chair of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, became foreign secretary of the Royal Society, and was awarded the degree of doctor of laws from the University of Edinburgh.^[4]

Hutton published a wide variety of materials ranging from bridge construction to calculations on the density of the earth. Hutton’s work titled, Mathematical Tables contained calculations of logarithmic and trigonometric functions. This publication was heavily relied upon by engineers at the time to provide them with the calculations necessary to carry out engineering projects.^[5]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as Hutton’s Mathematical tables. 8vo. and given by Thomas Jefferson to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The precise edition owned by Wythe is unknown. George Wythe's Library^[6] on LibraryThing indicates this, adding "Octavo editions with similar imprints were published at London in 1785 and 1794." The Brown Bibliography^[7] lists the 1785, first edition based on the copy Jefferson sold to the Library of Congress.^[8] The Wolf Law Library followed Brown's suggestion and purchased the first edition.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in contemporary calf and rebacked. Purchased from Flora books.

Find this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

External Links

Read this book in Google Books.

References

1. ↑ Niccolò Guicciardini “Hutton, Charles (1737–1823)” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed Oct. 3, 2013. (Subscription required for access.)
2. ↑ Ibid.
3. ↑ Ibid.
4. ↑ Ibid.
5. ↑ "Encyclopedia Britannica 1911’’ online, s.v. “Mathematical Table," accessed October 3, 2013 http://www.theodora.com/encyclopedia/t/mathematical_table.html.
6. ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on November 13, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe
7. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
8. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 4:18 [no.3697].