Notes & Queries Archive
QUERY1850

CULTIVATION OF GEOMETRY IN LANCASHIRE

By PEN-AND-INK. (Hill Top)

It has been a frequent subject of remark, that geometry in its purest form has been cultivated in the northern counties, but more especially in Lancashire, with extraordinary ardour and success; and this by a class of men placed in a position the most unpropitious that can be conceived for the study—by operatives of the humblest class, and these chiefly *weavers*. The geometrical labours of these men would have gladdened the hearts of Euclid, Apollonius and Archimedes, and would have been chronicled by Pappus with his usual truthfulness and judicious commendation; had they only but so laboured…

Topics: Geometry, Natural History, Botany, Educational Development

Locations: Lancashire, England, Manchester, Spitalfields