- Peter Barlow
:"For the
Coronation Street character of the same name, seePeter Barlow (Coronation Street) "Infobox Scientist
name = Peter Barlow
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caption = Peter Barlow
birth_date =October 15 1776
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death_date =March 1 ,1862
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nationality = English
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field =mathematics
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footnotes =Peter Barlow (
October 15 1776 —March 1 ,1862 ) was an Englishwriter on pure and appliedmathematics .Career
Only the month and year of Barlow's birth in
Norwich have been recorded for posterity. In 1806 at the age of thirty, he was appointed mathematical master in theRoyal Military Academy, Woolwich , a post which he held for 41 years. In 1823 he was made a fellow of theRoyal Society and two years later received the Copley medal. Steam locomotion received much attention at his hands and he sat on the railway commissions of 1836, 1839, 1842 and 1845. He also conducted several investigations for the newly-formedRailway Inspectorate in the early 1840s.He received many distinctions from British and foreign scientific societies. Barlow’s principal works are:
*"Elementary Investigation of the Theory of Numbers" (1811)
*"New Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary" (1814)
*"Essay on Magnetic Attractions" (1820).Barlow's investigations on
magnetism led to the important practical discovery of a means of rectifying or compensatingcompass errors in ships. Some of his magnetic research was done in collaboration withSamuel Hunter Christie . Besides compiling numerous useful tables, he contributed largely to the "Encyclopaedia Metropolitana ".Peter Barlow also made several contributions to the theory of
strength of materials , including "Essay on the strength and stress of timber" (1817) and "Treatise on the strength of materials". The sixth edition (1867) of the former was prepared by Barlow's two sons after his death and contains a biography of their father.Died at the age of 85.
His sons
Peter W. Barlow andWilliam Henry Barlow became notablecivil engineer s of the 19th century.ee also
*
Barlow's Wheel
*Barlow lens
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