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HUTTON, CHARLES (1737-1823)

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 15 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HUTTON, See also:CHARLES (1737-1823) , See also:English mathematician, was See also:born at See also:Newcastle-on-See also:Tyne on the 14th of See also:August 1737. He was educated in a school at Jesmond, kept by Mr Ivison, a clergyman of the See also:church of See also:England. There is See also:reason to believe, on the See also:evidence of two pay-bills, that for a See also:short See also:time in 1755 and 1756 Hutton worked in Old See also:Long See also:Benton colliery; at any See also:rate, on Ivison's promotion to a living, Hutton succeeded to the Jesmond school, whence, in consequence of increasing pupils, he removed to Stote's See also:Hall. While he taught during the See also:day at Stote's Hall, he studied See also:mathematics in the evening at a school in Newcastle. In 176o he married, and began tuition on a larger See also:scale in Newcastle, where he had among his pupils See also:John See also:Scott, afterwards See also:Lord See also:Eldon, See also:chancellor of England. In 1764 he published his first See also:work, The Schoolmaster's See also:Guide, or a See also:Complete See also:System of See also:Practical See also:Arithmetic, which in 1770 was followed by his See also:Treatise on See also:Mensuration both in Theory and Practice. In 1772 appeared a See also:tract on The Principles of See also:Bridges, suggested by the destruction of Newcastle See also:bridge by a high See also:flood on the 17th of See also:November 1771. In 1773 he was appointed See also:professor of mathematics at the Royal Military See also:Academy, See also:Woolwich, and in the following See also:year he was elected F.R.S. and reported on Nevil See also:Maskelyne's determination of the mean See also:density and See also:mass of the See also:earth from measurements taken in 1774—1776 at See also:Mount Schiehallion in See also:Perthshire. This See also:account appeared in the Philosophical Transactions for 1778, was afterwards reprinted in the second See also:volume of his Tracts on Mathematical and Philosophical Subjects, and procured for Hutton the degree of LL.D. from the university of See also:Edinburgh. He was elected See also:foreign secretary to the Royal Society in 1779, but his resignation in 1783 was brought about by the See also:president See also:Sir See also:Joseph See also:Banks, whose behaviour to the mathematical See also:section of the society was somewhat high-handed (see See also:Kippis's Observations on the See also:late Contests in the Royal Society, See also:London, 1784). After his Tables of the Products and See also:Powers of See also:Numbers, 1781, and his Mathematical Tables, 1785, he issued, for the use of the Royal Military Academy, in 1787 Elements of Conic Sections, and in 1798 his Course of Mathematics. His Mathematical and Philosophical See also:Dictionary, a valuable contribution to scientific See also:biography, was published in 1795 (2nd ed., 1815), and the four volumes of Recreations in Mathematics and Natural See also:Philosophy, mostly a See also:translation from the See also:French, in 1803.

One of the most laborious of his See also:

works was the abridgment, in See also:conjunction with G. See also:Shaw and R. See also:Pearson, of the Philosophical Transactions. This under-taking, the mathematical and scientific parts of which See also:fell.to Hutton's See also:share, was completed in 1809, and filled eighteen volumes See also:quarto. His name first appears in the Ladies' See also:Diary (a poetical and mathematical See also:almanac which was begun in 1704, and lasted till 1871) in 1764; ten years later he was appointed editor of the almanac, a See also:post which he retained till 1817. Previously he had begun a small periodical, Miscellanea Mathematica, which extended only to thirteen numbers; subsequently he published in five volumes The Diarian See also:Miscellany, which contained large extracts from the Diary. He resigned his professorship in 1807, and died on the 27th of See also:January 1823. See John See also:Bruce, Charles Hutton (Newcastle, 1823). His See also:chief works were his Ars versificandi (1511); the Nemo (1518); a work on the 1llorbus Gallicus (1519) ; the volume of Steckelberg complaints against See also:Duke See also:Ulrich (including his four Ciceronian Orations, his Letters and the Phalarismus) also in 1519; the Vadismus (1520); and the controversy with See also:Erasmus at the end of his See also:life. Besides these were many admirable poems in Latin and See also:German. It is not known with certainty how far See also:Hutten was the See also:parent of the celebrated Epistolae obscurorum virorum, that famous See also:satire on monastic See also:ignorance as represented by the theologians of See also:Cologne with which the See also:friends of See also:Reuchlin defended him. At first the See also:cloister-See also:world, not discerning its See also:irony, welcomed the work as a See also:defence of their position; though their eyes were soon opened by the favour with which the learned world received it.

The Epistolae were eagerly bought up; the first See also:

part (41 letters) appeared at the end of 1515; See also:early in 1516 there was a second edition; later in 1516 a third, with an appendix of seven letters; in 1517 appeared the second part (62 letters), to which a fresh appendix of eight letters was subjoined soon after. In 1909 the Latin See also:text of the Epistolae with an English translation was published by F. G. See also:Stokes. Hutten, in a See also:letter addressed to See also:Robert See also:Crocus, denied that he was the author of the See also:book, but there is no doubt as to his connexion with it. Erasmus was of See also:opinion that there were three authors, of whom Crotus Rubianus was the originator of the See also:idea, and Hutten a chief contributor. 1). F. See also:Strauss, who dedicates to the subject a See also:chapter of his admirable work on flatten, concludes that he had no share in the first part, but that his See also:hand is clearly visible in the second part, which he attributes in the See also:main to him. To him is due the more serious and severe See also:tone of that See also:bitter portion of the satire. See W. Brecht, See also:Die Verfasser der Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1904).

For a complete See also:

catalogue of the writings of Hutten, see E. Bocking's See also:Index Bibliographicus Huttenianus (1858). Bocking is also the editor of the complete edition of Hutten's works (7 vols., 1859-1862). A selection of Hutten's German writings, edited by G. Balke, appeared in 1891. Cp. S. Szamatolski, Huttens deutsche Schriften (1891). The best biography (though it is also somewhat of a See also:political pamphlet) is that of D. F. Strauss (Ulrich von Hutten, 1857; 4th ed., 1878; English translation by G. See also:Sturge, 1874), with which may be compared the older monographs by A.

Wagenseil (1823), A. Biirck (1846) and J. See also:

Zeller (See also:Paris, 1849). See also J. Deckert, Ulrich von Hutten Leben and YVirken. Eine historische Skizze (1901). (G. W.

End of Article: HUTTON, CHARLES (1737-1823)

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