William Spence

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Spence was educated in Glasgow as a manufacturer but nevertheless devoted himself to mathematics, working in isolation in Greenock. A work of 1809 on Logarithmic Transcentents showed him as one of the first British mathematicians to be familiar with the work of Lagrange and Arbogast.

He published on algebraic and differential equations (1814) and other manuscripts were edited and published in 1820 by John Herschel.

Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson

JOC/EFR © December 1996 Copyright information	School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland
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