Barlow, Peter (1776–1862)
An English self-educated mathematician who wrote several important books
on the subject but is best known for his compendium of factors, squares,
cubes, square roots, reciprocals, and hyperbolic logarithms of all numbers
from 1 to 10 000, entitled New Mathematical Tables (but generally
known as Barlow's Tables) and his invention of a special telescope
lens. Barlow lenses, or "Barlows," are
popularly used by amateur astronomers to this day to multiply the power
of other lenses. He also worked on the design of bridges and, was appointed
as royal commissioner for railways, conducting experiments to see if the
limitation on gradients and radius of curvature proposed by George Stephenson
was correct.
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• MATHEMATICIANS
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