Mathematician:Peter Barlow

Mathematician

English mathematician and physicist, famous for his New Mathematical Tables, which would be later republished and known as Barlow's Tables and become a standard reference work.

Also (disappointingly) notable for his prediction in $1811$ that no prime greater than $2^{31} - 1$ would ever be discovered.

Also noted for his work on magnetism and strength of materials.

His incorrect formulation Barlow's law in $1824$ appeared to demonstrate that long-distance transmission of electricity was unfeasible, and until it was disproved in $1831$ belief in it held back the development of telegraphy for some years.

Nationality

English

History

• Born: 15 October 1776, Norwich, England
• 1801 - 1847: Assistant mathematics master at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
• 1823: Made a Fellow of the Royal Society
• 1824: Formulated the (incorrect) Barlow's law
• 1825: Received Copley Medal
• 1836, 1839, 1842 and 1845: Sat on various railway commissions
• Died: 1 March 1862, Kent, England

Inventions and Innovations

• Barlow Lens
• Barlow's Wheel
• Barlow's Law
• Barlow's Formula

Other things

• Barlow's Prediction

Publications

• 1811: Elementary Investigation of the Theory of Numbers
• 1814: A New Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary
• 1814: New Mathematical Tables
• 1817: Essay on the strength and stress of timber

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Peter Barlow": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive