Peter Barlow (mathematician)

Peter Barlow (1776 to 1862) was an English mathematician and physicist. Appointed assistant mathematics master at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1801, he kept the post until 1847, wrote for The Ladies Diary and published An Elementary Investigation of the Theory of Numbers in 1811, a mathematical and philosophical dictionary in 1814 and New Mathematical Tables, known as Barlow's Tables, which list squares, cubes, roots and reciprocals of the integers up to 10,000 and were reprinted until 1965. He also built an achromatic lens with the optician George Dollond, studied terrestrial magnetism and ship compass deviation, which won him the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1825, sat on railway commissions, and wrote on the strength of timber and materials. The Barlow lens, Barlow's wheel and Barlow's law carry his name, and his sons Peter W. and William Henry Barlow became civil engineers.