William Wallace LLD (23 September 176828 April 1843) was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer who invented the eidograph (an improved

pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...

Life

Wallace was born at Dysart in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

, the son of Alexander Wallace, a leather manufacturer, and his wife, Janet Simson. He received his school education in Dysart and Kirkcaldy. In 1784 his family moved to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, where he himself was set to learn the trade of a bookbinder. In 1790 he appears as "William Wallace, bookbinder" living and trading at Cowgatehead, at the east end of the

Grassmarket The Grassmarket is a historic market place, street and event space in the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. In relation to the rest of the city it lies in a hollow, well below surrounding ground levels. Location The Grassmarket is located direct ...

. His taste for mathematics had already developed itself, and he made such use of his leisure hours that before the completion of his apprenticeship he had made considerable acquirements in geometry, algebra and astronomy. He was further assisted in his studies by John Robison (1739–1805) and

John Playfair John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illu ...

, to whom his abilities had become known. After various changes of situation, dictated mainly by a desire to gain time for study, he became assistant teacher of mathematics in the

Perth Academy Perth Academy is a state comprehensive secondary school in Perth, Scotland. It was founded in 1696. The institution is a non-denominational one. The school occupies ground on the side of a hill in the Viewlands area of Perth, and is within the P ...

in 1794. This post he exchanged in 1803 for a mathematical mastership in the Royal Military College at

Great Marlow Great Marlow is a civil parish within Wycombe district in the English county of Buckinghamshire, lying north of the town of Marlow and south of High Wycombe. The parish includes the hamlets of Bovingdon Green, Burroughs Grove, Chisbridge Cro ...

, in which post he continued after it moved to Sandhurst, with a recommendation by Playfair. In 1804 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were John Playfair,

Thomas Charles Hope Thomas Charles Hope (21 July 1766 – 13 June 1844) was a British physician, chemist and lecturer. He proved the existence of the element strontium, and gave his name to Hope's Experiment, which shows that water reaches its maximum density at ...

and William Wright. In 1819 he was chosen to succeed John Playfair in the chair of mathematics at

. Playfair's second chair (in Natural Philosophy) was taken by John Leslie. Wallace developed a reputation for being an excellent teacher. Among his students was

Mary Somerville Mary Somerville (; , formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorary ...

. In 1838 he retired from the university due to ill health. In his final years he lived at 6 Lauriston Lane on the south side of Edinburgh. He died in Edinburgh and was buried in

Greyfriars Kirkyard Greyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located at the southern edge of the Old Town, adjacent to George Heriot's School. Burials have been taking place since the late 16th century, and a num ...

. The grave lies on the north-facing retaining wall in the centre of the northern section.

Mathematical contributions

In his earlier years Wallace was an occasional contributor to Leybourne's ''Mathematical Repository'' and the ''Gentleman's Mathematical Companion''. Between 1801 and 1810 he contributed articles on "Algebra", "Conic Sections", "Trigonometry", and several others in mathematical and physical science to the fourth edition of the ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

'', and some of these were retained in subsequent editions from the fifth to the eighth inclusive. He was also the author of the principal mathematical articles in the '' Edinburgh Encyclopædia'', edited by

David Brewster Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE (11 December 178110 February 1868) was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics ...

. He also contributed many important papers to the ''Transactions'' of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He mainly worked in the field of geometry and in 1799 became the first to publish the concept of the Simson line, which erroneously was attributed to

Robert Simson Robert Simson (14 October 1687 – 1 October 1768) was a Scottish mathematician and professor of mathematics at the University of Glasgow. The Simson line is named after him. In 1807 he proved a result about polygons with an equal area, that later became known as the Bolyai–Gerwien theorem. His most important contribution to British mathematics however was, that he was one of the first mathematicians introducing and promoting the advancement of the continental European version of

calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizati ...

in Britain.

Other works

Wallace also worked in astronomy and invented the eidograph, a mechanical device for scaling drawings.Gerard L'Estrange Turner: ''Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments''. University of California Press 1983, , p. 280 ()

Books

*''A Geometrical Treatise on the Conic Sections with an Appendix Containing Formulae for their Quadrature''. (1838) *''Geometrical Theorems and Analytical Formulae with their application to the Solution of Certain Geodetical Problems and an Appendix''. (1839)

Family

Wallace was married to Janet Kerr (1775–1824). His daughter, Margaret Wallace, married the mathematician Thomas Galloway. His sons included the Rev Alexander Wallace (1803–1842) and Archibald C. Wallace (1806–1830). He also appears to have had a son William Wallace (1784–1864) when William was aged only 16. The mother is not clear.

References

Sources

External links

*
Short biographical note on William Wallace
in the ''Gazetteer for Scotland'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, William 1768 births 1843 deaths People from Dysart, Fife Scottish astronomers Scottish mathematicians 19th-century British mathematicians 19th-century Scottish people Scottish inventors Scottish civil engineers Burials at Greyfriars Kirkyard Scottish schoolteachers Academics of the University of Edinburgh Members of the Royal Irish Academy Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British geometers Scottish encyclopedists