John Caulfield Hannyngton
John Caulfield Hannyngton (7 March 1807 – 1885 or 1886) was a British military commander, actuary and mathematician. He is remembered as inventor of a slide rule of previously unattainable precision.
History
Hannyngton was born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland, a son of Thomas Knox Hannyngton and Mrs Hannyngton, née Caulfield or Caulfeild.
He joined the British Army as a cadet in 1825 and was posted to India with the 24th Regiment of Native Infantry. On the suppression of the Colekan rebellion in 1839 he was given a political appointment, and in 1842 promoted to Judicial Commissioner.[1] He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1856 and took command of the 63rd RNI. At the time of the
He is best remembered today for his invention of a slide rule for astronomical calculations, which had 15 fixed rules, 32 inches (810 mm) long (an effective length of around 12 metres, and hence capable of great precision) and a bank of seven sliding rules. It was manufactured in England by Aston & Mander[1] and a demonstration of its capabilities was made by one Galbraith SFTCD before students of Trinity College Engineering School and reported in Freeman's Journal of 11 June 1884.[2] Examples are today highly collectible.
Recognition
- Hannyngton was elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society on 12 March 1875
- He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries[3]
Family
Son John Child Hannyngton (23 September 1835 – March 1895) was born in Barrackpore.
Publications
- John C. Hannyngton; Robert Shortrede (1873). Logarithms of Sines and Tangents for Every Second.
- John C. Hannyngton (1876). Haversines Natural and Logarithmic Used in Computing Lunar Distances for the Nautical Almanac.
- John C. Hannyngton. Table of logarithms and anti-logarithms (four figures), 1-10,000.
- John C. Hannyngton (1884). The slide rule extended.
References
- ^ Bibcode:1886MNRAS..46..187.
- ^ "A New Aid to Calculation". The Albury Banner and Wodonga Express. New South Wales, Australia. 7 November 1884. p. 14. Retrieved 12 May 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "John Caulfield Hannyngton". Internet Slide Rule Museum. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
External links
- Hannyngton Slide Rule
- Hannyngton Slide Rule in Rod Lovett's collection A very fine set of photographs.