Barlow

Peter Barlow

Born: 15 Oct 1776 in Norwich, England
 Died: 1 March 1862 in Kent, England

Show birthplace location

Previous (Chronologically) Next Biographies Index
Previous (Alphabetically) Next Welcome page

Barlow was self-educated and became a mathematics master at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He is remembered most for two important contributions. In 1814 he produced Barlow's Tables which give factors, squares, cubes, square roots, reciprocals and hyperbolic logs of all numbers from 1 to 10 000. This was greatly used until made completely obsolete by calculators. His second major contribution makes his name still well known by amateur astronomers.

He invented the Barlow lens, a telescope lens consisting of a colourless liquid between two pieces of glass. In his lifetime Barlow's greatest achievement was being elected to the Royal Society and receiving its Copley medal for his work on magnetism.

References (3 books/articles)

References elsewhere in this archive:

Peter Barlow was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1823. You can see a history of the Royal Society and a list of the members among the mathematicians in our archive.
He was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1825. You can see a history of the Copley Medal and a list of the winners.

Previous (Chronologically) Next Biographies Index
Previous (Alphabetically) Next Welcome page
History Topics Index Famous curves index
Chronologies Birthplace Maps
Mathematicians of the day Anniversaries for the year
Search Form Simple Search Form Search Suggestions
JOC/EFR December 1996