Samuel Klingenstierna (18 August 1698 – 26 October 1765) was a very renowned

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

mathematician and scientist. He started his career as a lawyer but soon moved to

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science. From the ancient wo ...

. Already as a student he gave lectures on the then novel mathematical analysis of Newton and

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ma ...

. Klingenstierna was professor of geometry in

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

from 1728. In 1750 he moved to physics but retired two years later to become an advisor to the Commander of Artillery. In 1756 he assumed the post of the tutor of the Crown Prince, the future king

Gustav III Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what ...

. He was the first to enunciate errors in Newton's theories of refraction, geometrical notes that were used by

John Dollond John Dollond FRS (10 June O.S. (21 June N.S.) 170630 November 1761) was an English optician, known for his successful optics business and his patenting and commercialization of achromatic doublets. Biography Dollond was the son of a Hugue ...

in his experiments. Later on he was instrumental in the invention of the Achromatic Telescope. Klingenstierna published in Sweden and in Swedish, and his priority was not recognized.

References

* Lars Gårding: ''Matematik och Matematiker''. 1996. Lund University Press. * "Klingenstierna, Samuel." ''Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography''. 2008. Charles Scribner's Sons
Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jan. 2010
1698 births 1765 deaths Swedish nobility Academic staff of Uppsala University Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society 18th-century Swedish mathematicians {{Sweden-mathematician-stub