George John Gray

“ Gunter's ‘New Projection of the Sphere’ (in Latin) was circulated in manuscript in 1603, and gained for him the friendship of the Earl of Bridgewater, William Oughtred, Henry Briggs, and others. The English edition appeared in 1623. In 1618 he invented a small portable quadrant for more readily finding the hour and azimuth and for other useful astronomical and geometrical purposes, described in the appendix to his ‘Book of the Sector.’ On 6 March 1619 he was elected professor of astronomy in Gresham College. ”

“ He proposed to reprint the original ‘Ladies' Diaries,’ a project fulfilled subsequently by both Charles Hutton (1775) and Thomas Leybourn (1817) . He absurdly tried to establish a Palladium Society, having for its mark a ‘Palladium button,’ to be obtained from him. His journal ceased in 1778. He died in 1779. ”

“ In 1835 he was again first in mathematics, and finally took his degree as fourth wrangler in January 1837, the second being Professor Sylvester. ‘Green and Sylvester were the first men of the year, but Green's want of familiarity with ordinary boys' mathematics prevented him from coming to the top in a time race. ”

“ GUNTER, EDMUND (1581–1626) , mathematician, born in Hertfordshire in 1581, was son of a Welshman, who formerly lived at Gunterstown, Brecknockshire. He was educated at Westminster School under Busby, and thence was elected in 1599 to Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated 25 Jan. ”

“ By supposing that there are propagated, in the second medium, vibrations which rapidly diminish in intensity and become evanescent at sensible distances, the change of place which accompanies this phenomenon is clearly brought into view. ”

“ Until 1768 he was a ‘teacher of the mathematics and natural philosophy on the Newtonian principles’ in his native town. In 1768 he was elected librarian of the Bristol Library, and, ‘in keeping with his taste for the binomial theorem and the book of Euclid, he conceived the idea of converting the establishment into a mathematical academy; but the corporation did not join in his enthusiasm, and students were not invited.’ As his official duties were light, he started a mathematical academy at Bristol on his own account, in the park, near St. ”

“ The work (dedicated to Josias Dewye, merchant, of London) was first published in 1661. A third edition is dated 1664, a ninth 1672, a thirteenth 1681, a fifteenth in 1685; other editions are dated 1693, 1697, 1702, and 1739, the last being the twenty-seventh edition. All contain a portrait with verses beneath it. In the early editions it is engraved by Gaywood and in the later by Van Hove. The edition of 1685 is ‘amended’ by Henry Mose, Hodder's friend and successor, who kept a school in Sherborne Lane, Lombard Street. ”

“ C. Hutton's Dictionary, 1815; Memoir by Nicollet in the Biographie Universelle; A. de Morgan's Life by his wife, 1882; F. Bailey's Account of Life Assurance Companies, 1810; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ”

“ He became B.A. 12 Dec. 1603 and M.A. 2 July 1606, and, subsequently taking orders, proceeded B.D. 23 Nov. 1615 (Reg. Univ. Oxf., Oxf. Hist. Soc., ii. ii. 239, iii. 243) . In 1615 he was presented to the living of St. ”