John Pell
Encyclopedia
Early life
He was born at SouthwickSouthwick, West Sussex
Southwick is a small town and civil parish in the Adur District of West Sussex, England located three miles west of Brighton and a suburb of the East Sussex resort City of Brighton & Hove...
in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. He was educated at Steyning Grammar School
Steyning Grammar School
Steyning Grammar School is a state comprehensive school in Steyning, West Sussex, England. It is the only state school in West Sussex which caters for boarders...
, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, at the age of thirteen. During his university career he became an accomplished linguist, and even before he took his B.A. degree (in 1629) corresponded with Henry Briggs
Henry Briggs (mathematician)
Henry Briggs was an English mathematician notable for changing the original logarithms invented by John Napier into common logarithms, which are sometimes known as Briggsian logarithms in his honour....
and other mathematicians. In 1630 he was teaching in the short-lived Chichester Academy, set up by Samuel Hartlib
Samuel Hartlib
Samuel Hartlib was a German-British polymath. An active promoter and expert writer in many fields, he was interested in science, medicine, agriculture, politics, and education. He settled in England, where he married and died...
. Shortly afterwards he married Ithamaria Reginald (also rendered variously as Ithamara or Ithumaria, with the surname Reginolles), sister of Bathsua Makin
Bathsua Makin
Bathsua Reginald Makin was a proto-feminist, middle-class Englishwoman who contributed to the emerging criticism of woman’s position in domestic and public spheres in 17th-century England. Herself a highly educated woman, Makin was referred to as “England’s most learned lady,” skilled in Greek,...
.
Pell spent much of the 1630s working under Hartlib's influence, on a variety of topics in the area of pedagogy, encyclopedism and pansophy, combinatorics and the legacy of Trithemius. By 1638 he had formulated a proposal for a universal language
Universal language
Universal language may refer to a hypothetical or historical language spoken and understood by all or most of the world's population. In some circles, it is a language said to be understood by all living things, beings, and objects alike. It may be the ideal of an international auxiliary language...
. In mathematics, he concentrated on expanding the scope of algebra in the theory of equations
Theory of equations
In mathematics, the theory of equations comprises a major part of traditional algebra. Topics include polynomials, algebraic equations, separation of roots including Sturm's theorem, approximation of roots, and the application of matrices and determinants to the solving of equations.From the point...
, and on mathematical tables. As part of a joint lobbying effort with Hartlib to find himself support to continue as a researcher, he had his short Idea of Mathematics printed in October 1638. The campaign brought interested responses from Johann Moriaen
Johann Moriaen
Johann Moriaen was a German alchemist and early chemist, known as an associate of Samuel Hartlib. He was active in recruiting for Hartlib's network of intellectuals, the Hartlib Circle, and communicating with them. He was a convinced pansophist.With no published works, his activities have been...
and Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne was a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist, often referred to as the "father of acoustics"...
.
Academic and diplomat
His reputation and the influence of Sir William BoswellWilliam Boswell
Sir William Boswell was an English diplomat, a resident ambassador to the Netherlands.-Life:William Boswell was a native of Suffolk. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, of which he was elected fellow in 1606. He subsequently entered the diplomatic service, and was appointed secretary to...
, the English resident, with the States-General procured his election in 1644 to the chair of mathematics in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, after an earlier attempt immediately after Martin van den Hove
Martin van den Hove
Martin van den Hove was a Dutch astronomer and mathematician. His adopted Latin name is a translation of the Dutch hof , in Latin horta.-Early life:...
left for Leiden had failed. From 1644 he worked on a polemical work, against Longomontanus. For this he put in a large effort soliciting help and testimonials: from Bonaventura Cavalieri
Bonaventura Cavalieri
Bonaventura Francesco Cavalieri was an Italian mathematician. He is known for his work on the problems of optics and motion, work on the precursors of infinitesimal calculus, and the introduction of logarithms to Italy...
, his patron Sir Charles Cavendish, René Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
, Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
, Mersenne, Claude Mydorge
Claude Mydorge
Claude Mydorge was a French mathematician. His primary contributions were in geometry and physics.Mydorge served on a scientific committee set up to determine whether Jean-Baptiste Morin's scheme for determining longitude from the Moon's motion was practical.-External links:...
, and Gilles de Roberval
Gilles de Roberval
Gilles Personne de Roberval , French mathematician, was born at Roberval, Oise, near Beauvais, France. His name was originally Gilles Personne or Gilles Personier, that of Roberval, by which he is known, being taken from the place of his birth.Like René Descartes, he was present at the siege of La...
. It finally appeared as Controversy with Longomontanus concerning the Quadrature of the Circle (1647).
Pell moved in 1646, on the invitation of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange
Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange
Frederick Henry, or Frederik Hendrik in Dutch , was the sovereign Prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel from 1625 to 1647.-Early life:...
, to Breda, and remained there until 1652.
From 1654 to 1658 Pell acted as Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
's political agent to the Protestant canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
s of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
; he co-operated with Samuel Morland
Samuel Morland
Sir Samuel Morland, 1st Baronet , or Moreland, was a notable English academic, diplomat, spy, inventor and mathematician of the 17th century, a polymath credited with early developments in relation to computing, hydraulics and steam power.-Education:The son of Thomas Morland, the rector of...
at Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. A mathematical pupil and disciple there, from 1657, was Johann Heinrich Rahn, known as Rhonius. Rahn is credited with the invention of the division sign ÷ (obelus); it has also been attributed to Pell, who taught Rahn a three-column spreadsheet-style technique of tabulation of calculations, and acted as editor for Rahn's 1659 book Teutsche Algebra in which it appeared. This book by Rahn also contained what would become known as the "Pell equation". Diophantine equation
Diophantine equation
In mathematics, a Diophantine equation is an indeterminate polynomial equation that allows the variables to be integers only. Diophantine problems have fewer equations than unknown variables and involve finding integers that work correctly for all equations...
s was a favorite subject with Pell; he lectured on them at Amsterdam. He is now best remembered, if perhaps erroneously, for the indeterminate equation
which is known as Pell's equation
Pell's equation
Pell's equation is any Diophantine equation of the formx^2-ny^2=1\,where n is a nonsquare integer. The word Diophantine means that integer values of x and y are sought. Trivially, x = 1 and y = 0 always solve this equation...
. This problem was in fact proposed by Pierre de Fermat
Pierre de Fermat
Pierre de Fermat was a French lawyer at the Parlement of Toulouse, France, and an amateur mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his adequality...
first to Bernard Frénicle de Bessy
Bernard Frénicle de Bessy
Bernard Frénicle de Bessy , was a French mathematician born in Paris, who wrote numerous mathematical papers, mainly in number theory and combinatorics. He is best remembered for Des quarrez ou tables magiques, a treatise on magic squares published posthumously in 1693, in which he described all...
, and in 1657 to all mathematicians. Pell's connection with the problem is through Rahn. It consisted of the publication of the solutions of John Wallis and Lord Brouncker, in his edition of Thomas Branker
Thomas Branker
-Life:He was born at Barnstaple in August 1633, the son of another Thomas Brancker, a graduate of Exeter College, Oxford, who was in 1626 a schoolmaster near Ilchester, and about 1630 head-master of the Barnstaple High School. The family originally bore the name of Brouncker. Young Brancker...
's Translation of Rhonius's Algebra (1668); added to his earlier editorial contributions, whatever they were, to the 1659 algebra book written by Rahn (i.e. Rhonius). This new edition of what was essentially Rahn's work, by Pell, included a great deal of additional material on number theory
Number theory
Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers. Number theorists study prime numbers as well...
, amounting to a reply to the 1657 book Exercitationes mathematicae by Frans van Schooten
Frans van Schooten
Franciscus van Schooten was a Dutch mathematician who is most known for popularizing the analytic geometry of René Descartes.-Life:...
. It is also notable for its inclusion of a Table of Incomposits, an early large factor table.
After the Restoration
After his return to England he took orders, in 1661, when he became rector of FobbingFobbing
Fobbing is a small village in Thurrock, Essex, England and one of Thurrock's traditional parishes. It is located between Basildon and Corringham, and is also close to Stanford-le-Hope....
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. In 1663 he was given an honorary D.D. (Lambeth degree
Lambeth degree
A Lambeth degree is an academic degree conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury under the authority of the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 as successor of the papal legate in England...
), and was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. At the same time he was presented by Bishop Gilbert Sheldon
Gilbert Sheldon
Gilbert Sheldon was an English Archbishop of Canterbury.-Early life:He was born in Stanton, Staffordshire in the parish of Ellastone, on 19 July 1598, the youngest son of Roger Sheldon; his father worked for Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford; he...
to the rectory of Laindon
Laindon
Laindon is a town in the west of the Basildon district of Essex, England.It is north of Laindon railway station on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway. South of the railway station and line is Langdon Hills. Laindon and Langdon Hills are part of the Basildon post town.Until its abolition in...
, Essex; Sheldon expected him to treat the positions as sinecures. He spent time as mathematics teacher to William Brereton, 3rd Baron Brereton
William Brereton, 3rd Baron Brereton
William Brereton, 3rd Baron Brereton FRS was an English mathematician and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1659 and became Baron Brereton in the Irish peerage in 1664....
, at Brereton Hall
Brereton Hall
Brereton Hall is a country house to the north of the village of Brereton Green, adjacent to St Oswald's Church, in the civil parish of Brereton, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.-History:...
.
In 1673 he met Leibniz in London, and was able to inform him that some of his mathematical work had been anticipated by François Regnaud and Gabriel Mouton
Gabriel Mouton
Gabriel Mouton was a French abbot and scientist. He was a doctor of theology from Lyon, but was also interested in mathematics and astronomy....
. His devotion to mathematics seems to have interfered with his advancement in the Church and with his private life. For a time he was confined as a debtor
Debtor
A debtor is an entity that owes a debt to someone else. The entity may be an individual, a firm, a government, a company or other legal person. The counterparty is called a creditor...
in the King's Bench Prison
King's Bench Prison
The King's Bench Prison was a prison in Southwark, south London, from medieval times until it closed in 1880. It took its name from the King's Bench court of law in which cases of defamation, bankruptcy and other misdemeanours were heard; as such, the prison was often used as a debtor's prison...
. He lived, on the invitation of Dr Daniel Whistler
Daniel Whistler
-Life:The son of William Whistler of Elvington, Oxfordshire, he was born at Walthamstow in Essex in 1619. He was educated at the school of Thame, Oxfordshire, and entered Merton College, Oxford, in January 1639. He graduated B.A. in 1642. On 8 August 1642 he began the study of physic at the...
, for a short time in 1682 at the College of Physicians, but died at the house of Mr Cothorne, reader of the church of St Giles-in-the Fields
St Giles in the Fields
St Giles in the Fields, Holborn, is a church in the London Borough of Camden, in the West End. It is close to the Centre Point office tower and the Tottenham Court Road tube station. The church is part of the Diocese of London within the Church of England...
.
Works
Many of Pell's manuscripts fell into the hands of Richard BusbyRichard Busby
The Rev. Dr. Richard Busby was an English Anglican priest who served as head master of Westminster School for more than fifty-five years.-Life:...
, master of Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
, and afterwards came into the possession of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
; they are still preserved in nearly forty folio volumes in the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, which contain, not only Pell's own memoirs, but much of his correspondence with the mathematicians of his time.
His chief works are:
- Astronomical History of Observations of Heavenly Motions and Appearances (1634)
- Ecliptica prognostica (1634)
- An Idea of Mathematicks (1638)
- Controversy with Longomontanus concerning the Quadrature of the Circle (1646?)
- A Table of Ten Thousand Square Numbers (fol.; 1672).
The Idea was a short manifesto. It made three suggestions: a mathematical encyclopedia and bibliography; a complete mathematics research library and collection of instruments, with state sponsorship; and a three-volume comprehensive set of mathematical textbooks, able to convey the state of the art to any scholar.
Family
Upon the death of John Pell's brother, Thomas PellThomas Pell
Dates may not be entirely accurate in this article due to disagreements between sources.Thomas Pell was a physician who was famous for buying the area known as Pelham, Westchester, New York, as well as land that now includes the eastern Bronx and southern Westchester County. He founded the town...
, in 1670, the mathematician's son, Sir John Pell inherited lands in New York, where he lived as the first Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
of Pelham
Pelham (village), New York
Pelham is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 6,910 at the 2010 census. As a village, it is located in the Town of Pelham.-History:...
. His descendants have continued to be prominent in the American polity, including Ambassador and U.S. Representative Herbert Pell
Herbert Pell
Herbert Claiborne Pell, Jr. was a United States Representative from New York, U.S. Minister to Portugal, U.S. Minister to Hungary, and an instigator and member of the United Nations War Crimes Commission....
and U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell
Claiborne Pell
Claiborne de Borda Pell was a United States Senator from Rhode Island, serving six terms from 1961 to 1997, and was best known as the sponsor of the Pell Grant, which provides financial aid funding to U.S. college students. A Democrat, he was that state's longest serving senator.-Early years:Pell...
.
External links
- Galileo Project page
- http://www.townofpelham.com/townhistorian/index.html