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University of St Andrews, Scotland
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Robins.html
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Benjamin Robins attended school in Bath, then went to London after leaving school. There he studied languages and mathematics without the help of tutors. He progressed quickly, publishing in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1727, the year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He wrote on Johann Bernoulli's laws of motion and impacts of rigid bodies, achieving considerable fame so that he was able to attract many pupils for mathematics tuition. He gave this as individual tuition, never teaching a class.
Gradually Robins gave up teaching to become an engineer. He went on to construct bridges, mills and harbours. He also worked at making rivers navigable and draining fen land. In addition to this he began to study gunnery and fortifications. To gain experience he travelled through Flanders studying fortification work there, there was certainly much to see.
On his return to England he published A discourse concerning the nature and certainty of Sir Isaac Newton's method of fluxions and prime and ultimate ratios. This was to support the differential calculus against attacks by Berkeley. He also published Remarks on M Euler's Treatise of Motion in 1739. His publications were not restricted to science however and around this time he published three famous political pamphlets.
Robins published in 1742 New Principles of Gunnery which formed the basis for all subsequent work on the theory of artillery and projectiles. It was translated into German by Euler. In 1747 he received the Copley medal of the Royal Society.
Robins also invented the ballistic pendulum which allowed precise measurements of the velocity of projectiles fired from guns. As described by Robins, a large wooden block is suspended in front of a gun. When a bullet is fired its momentum is transferred to the bob and can be determined from the amplitude of the pendulum.
He experimented with rockets, publishing Rockets and the heights to which they ascend in 1750. He also improved the instruments at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
Robins was sent to India in 1750 and there he prepared the defence of Madras. He contracted a fever in India and died, according to [2],
with his pen in his hand while drawing up a report for the board of directors.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
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List of References (3 books/articles)
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| Mathematicians born in the same country
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| Honours awarded to Benjamin Robins (Click below for those honoured in this way) | |
| Fellow of the Royal Society | 1727 |
| Royal Society Copley Medal | 1746 |
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