John Colson

John Colson was educated at Lichfield School before becoming an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, though he did not complete a degree there. He became a schoolmaster at Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School in Rochester, and was elected a 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.^[1] From 1739 to 1760, he was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. He was also Rector of Lockington, Yorkshire.^[2]

In 1726 he published his "Negativo-Affirmativo Arithmetik" , which advocated a modified decimal system of numeration.^[3] He proposed "reduction [to] small figures" by "throwing all the large figures ${\displaystyle 9,8,7,6}$ out of a given number, and introducing in their room the equivalent small figures ${\displaystyle 1{\bar {1}},1{\bar {2}},1{\bar {3}},1{\bar {4}}}$ respectively". This method of signifying numbers is now called signed-digit representation.^[4]

John Colson translated several of Isaac Newton's works into English, including De Methodis Serierum et Fluxionum in 1736.^[1]

• Method of Fluxions
• Witch of Agnesi