William Galbraith (mathematician)

William Galbraith's grave, Grange Cemetery

Rev William Galbraith (1786 – 27 October 1850) was a Scottish mathematician. He taught mathematics and nautical astronomy in Edinburgh, and took an interest in surveying work, becoming an advocate of the extension of the work of triangulating Great Britain.[1]

Early life

He was born at Greenlaw, Berwickshire.[2] Initially he was a schoolmaster. His pupil William Rutherford walked long distances to attend his school at Eccles. Subsequently he moved to Edinburgh, and graduated A.M. at the University of Edinburgh in 1821.[3]

Surveyor

During the 1830s Galbraith became interested in the surveying problems of Scotland. In 1831 he pointed out that Arthur's Seat had a strongly magnetic peak.[4] In 1837 he pointed out the impact of anomalies in measurement, work that received recognition;[5] it was topical because of the 1836 geological map of Scotland by John MacCulloch, with which critics had found fault on topographical as well as geological grounds.[6] A paper on the locations of places on the River Clyde was recognised in 1837 by a gold medal, from the Society for the Encouragement of the Useful Arts for Scotland.[7]

Galbraith followed with detailed Remarks on the Geographical Position of some Points on the West Coast of Scotland (1838).[8] Having made some accurate surveys of his own, he lobbied for further attention from the national survey.[1]

Galbraith's pocket-box circle, an invention for portable surveying.

Later life

About 1832 Galbraith was licensed a minister by the presbytery of Dunse. He married Eleanor Gale in 1833.[3]

Galbraith was buried with his wife in the north-east section of the Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh.[9]

Works

Galbraith's major works combined textbook material with mathematical tables:

He edited John Ainslie's 1812 treatise on land surveying (1849),[13] and with William Rutherford revised John Bonnycastle's Algebra.[14]

Notes

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