Gunpowder & geometry : the life of Charles Hutton, pit boy, mathematician and scientific rebel
Wardhaugh, Benjamin, 1979-2019
Books
August, 1755. Newcastle, on the north bank of the Tyne. In the fields, men and women are getting the harvest in. Sunlight, or rain. Scudding clouds and backbreaking labour. Three hundred feet underground, young Charles Hutton is at the coalface. Cramped, dust-choked, wielding a five-pound pick by candlelight. Eighteen years old, he's been down the pits on and off for more than a decade, and now it looks like a life sentence. No unusual story, although Charles is a clever lad - gifted at maths and languages - and for a time he hoped for a different life. Many hoped. Charles Hutton, astonishingly, would actually live the life he dreamed of. Twenty years later you'd have found him in Slaughter's coffee house in London, eating a few oysters with the President of the Royal Society. This book is his incredible story.
Main title:
Author:
Wardhaugh, Benjamin, 1979-, author
Imprint:
London : William Collins, 2019.
Collation:
312 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780008299958 (hbk. :)
Dewey class:
510.92920 HUT510.92 HUTTB HUTB
Language:
English
BRN:
2213902