Thomas Simpson: weaving fluxions in 18th-century London (Q2436780)

The main part of this historical paper deals with a comparison of Thomas Simpson's 1737 and 1750 treatises on fluxions, and with their place in the exposition and development of Newtonian calculus in the 18th century. The author highlights some of the differences in emphasis and content between the two works, explaining several of those differences in helpful detail. That part of the paper is preceded by brief biographies of Simpson himself (an interesting figure, whose initial occupations when he moved to London were `weaver and teacher of mathematics' and who subsequently became a Fellow of the Royal Society) and two contemporary and, in his case influential, mathematicians: Edmund Stone and Francis Blake. There is much historical meat in this paper, as well as a substantial bibliography.