Charles Hutton: Gunpowder, Gravity, and Joseph Banks’s Worst Enemy

Monday 23 January 6pm

A Live Lit & Phil Event | Dr Benjamin Wardhaugh

January 2023 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of British mathematician Charles Hutton, whose bust stands in the main library of the Lit & Phil.

Most will not have heard of him: there is no Hutton’s Theorem, nor any similar commemoration, nor is there any memorial to be seen at any of the sites where he lived or worked. Even his gravestone no longer exists. But for two or three decades his was the leading voice speaking for mathematics in English, and he was a man who provoked strong reactions among his contemporaries.

This lecture will survey his life and work and ask why he still matters today.

[Benjamin Wardhaugh is writer and academic based in Oxford, UK; his books range across mathematics, music and history. His biography of Charles Hutton, Gunpowder and Geometry, was simply ‘a brilliant job’ according to the Northern Echo, and was one of the Daily Telegraph’s books of the year. His latest book, Encounters with Euclid, was shortlisted for the London Hellenic Prize; Ian Stewart judged it ‘astonishingly readable and informative’.]

(If you would prefer to book directly over the phone, please call the Library Desk team on 0191 232 0192 and they will be happy to help)

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