John Playfair
1748–1819
Mathematician and geologist. Professor of mathematics, Edinburgh University, 1785–1805; professor of natural philosophy, 1805. Expounded the geological theories of James Hutton in a short and clear form, 1802. FRS 1807.
Sources
DSB
ODNB.
Bibliography
DSB: Dictionary of scientific biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie and Frederic L. Holmes. 18 vols. including index and supplements. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1970–90.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
letter
