John Colson

The Reverend John Colson FRS
File:Johncolson.gif
Born	1680
Died	Cambridge
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Cambridge
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Known for	Signed-digit representation

John Colson FRS (1680–1760) was an English clergyman and mathematician, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.

Life

John Colson was educated at Lichfield School before becoming an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, though he did not take a degree there. He became a schoolmaster at Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School in Rochester, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1713. He was Vicar of Chalk, Kent from 1724 to 1740. He relocated to Cambridge and lectured at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. From 1739 to 1760 he was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. He was also Rector of Lockington, Yorkshire.

Works

In 1726 he published his Negativo-Affirmativo Arithmetik advocating a modified decimal system of numeration. It involved "reduction [to] small figures" by "throwing all the large figures $9, 8, 7, 6$ out of a given number, and introducing in their room the equivalent small figures $1\bar{1}, 1\bar{2}, 1\bar{3}, 1\bar{4}$ respectively".

John Colson translated several of Isaac Newton's works into English, including De Methodis Serierum et Fluxionum in 1736.

See also

• Method of Fluxions
• Witch of Agnesi

References

•  
• "A Brief History of The Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge University" – Robert Bruen, Boston College, May 1995
• John Colson (1726) "A Short Account of Negativo-Affirmativo Arithmetik", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 34:161–73. Available as Early Journal Content from JSTOR.