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Hariot, Thomas, 1560-1621

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Thomas Harriot (c. 1560 – July 2, 1621) was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. Some sources give his surname as Harriott or Hariot.

After graduating from the Oxford University, Harriot traveled to the Americas on expeditions funded by Raleigh, and on his return he worked for the 9th Earl of Northumberland. At the Earl's house, he became a prolific mathematician and astronomer to whom the theory of refraction can be attributed.

Biography

He was born in Oxford, England at about 1560 and attended St Mary Hall, Oxford for appearance of his name in the school's registry dates back to 1577.^[1] After Harriot's graduation from Oxford (1580) he was first hired by Sir Walter Raleigh as a mathematician tutor, he used his knowledge of astronomy/astrology to provide navigational expertise. Harriot was also involved in designing Raleigh's ships and served as his accountant as well. During this time he also wrote a treatise on navigation prior to his expedition with Raleigh.^[2]

Expedition to the Americas

He went on at least one expedition, around 1585-86, and spent time in the New World visiting Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina furthering his knowledge by learning the Algonquian language. His account of the voyage, Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, was published in 1588 (probably written in 1587). The Report contains an early account of the Native American population encountered by the expedition; it was very influential upon later English explorers and colonists. He wrote: "Whereby it may be hoped, if means of good government be used, that they may in short time be brought to civility and the embracing of true religion." At the same time, his views of Native Americans' industry and capacity to learn were later largely ignored in favor of the parts of the "Report" about extractable minerals and resources.

As scientific adviser during the voyage, Harriot was asked by Raleigh to find the most efficient way to stack cannon balls on the deck of the ship. His ensuing theory about the close-packing of spheres shows a striking resemblance to atomism and modern atomic theory to which was he was later accused of believing. His correspondence about optics with Johannes Kepler, in which he described some of his ideas, later influenced Kepler's conjecture.

Later years

He was dedicated to work for Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland with whom he also resided at the Syon House which was run by Henry Percy's cousin Thomas Percy.

Harriot's sponsors began to fall from favour: Raleigh fell from favour, and Harriot's other patron Henry Percy, the Ninth Earl of Northumberland, was imprisoned in 1605 in connection with the Gunpowder Plot as he was the second cousin of one of the conspirators, Thomas Percy.

Harriot himself was interrogated and briefly imprisoned but soon released. Walter Warner, Robert Hues, William Lower and other scientific peers were present around the Earl of Northumberland's mansion as they worked and gave a hand in the teaching of the family's children.^[1]

Halley's Comet in 1607 turned Harriot's attention to astronomy. His observations of August 1609 and subsequently may have been the first uses of telescopes for astronomy. He was also first man to attempt mapping the Moon, and one of the first to observe sunspots, in December 1610.

The observatory on the campus of the College of William and Mary is named in Harriot's honor as is the college of arts and sciences at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.

The end

In 1615 or 161, Harriot wrote to an unknown friend with medical expertise, describing what must have been a cancerous ulcer on his lip. This progressed until 1621, when he was living with a friend named Thomas Buckner on Threadneedle Street, where he died. Sources cited below are among several that describe his condition as being cancer of the nose. In either case Harriot apparently died from skin cancer.

He died on July 2, 1621, three days after putting down his will on paper.^[3] His executors published his "Artes Analyticae Praxis" on algebra in 1631. It may be a compendium of some of his work but it doesn't represent all the unpublished work he had (more than 400 sheets of annotated writing) and it isn't ordered in a way that it follows the manuscripts which fails to give full credit of the significance of Harriot's writings.^[1]

Legacy

He also studied optics and refraction and apparently discovered Snell's law 20 years before Snell did, although, like so much of his work, this remained unpublished. In Virginia he learned the local Algonquin language, which may have had some effect on his mathematical thinking. He founded the "English school" of algebra.

Harriot's accomplishments remain relatively obscure because he did not publish any of his results and because many of his manuscripts have been lost; those that remain are in the British Museum and in the Percy family archives at Petworth House (Sussex) and Alnwick Castle (Northumberland).

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Stedall, Jacqueline (2003) The Greate Invention of Algebra, Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-19-852602-4.
^ Jehlen, Myra & Michael Warner. (1997) The English Literatures of America, 1500-1800, Routledge (UK). p. 64. ISBN 0-415-91903-7.
^ Stevens, Henry. (2004) Thomas Hariot, Kessinger Publishing. p. 68. ISBN 1-4191-8966-2.