William Gibson was born in the year 1720, at the village of Bolton, in
Westmoreland, England. On the death of his father, he put himself to a
farmer to learn his business. When he was about eighteen or nineteen, he
rented a small farm of his own, at a place called Hollins, where he
applied himself assiduously to study.
A short time previous to this, he had admired the operation of figures,
but labored under every disadvantage, for want of education. As he had
not yet been taught to read, he got a few lessons in English, and was
soon enabled to comprehend a plain author. He then purchased a treatise
on arithmetic; and though he could not write, he soon became so expert a
calculator, from mental operations only, that he could tell, without
setting down a figure, the product of any two numbers multiplied
together, although the multiplier and the multiplicand each of them
consisted of nine figures. It was equally astonishing that he could
answer, in the same manner, questions in division, in decimal fractions,
or in the extraction of the square or cube roots, where such a
multiplicity of figures is often required in the operation. Yet at this
time he did not know that any merit was due to himself, conceiving that
the capacity of other people was like his own.
Finding himself still laboring under farther difficulties for want of a
knowledge of writing, he taught himself to write a tolerable hand. As he
had not heard of mathematics, he had no idea of anything, in regard to
numbers, beyond what he had learned. He thought himself a master of
figures, and challenged all his companions and the members of a society
he attended, to a trial. Something, however, was proposed to him
concerning Euclid. As he did not understand the meaning of the word, he
was silent; but afterwards found it meant a book, containing the
elements of geometry; this he purchased, and applied himself very
diligently to the study of it, and against the next meeting he was
prepared with an answer in this new science.
He now found himself launching out into a field, of which before he had
no conception. He continued his geometrical studies; and as the
demonstration of the different propositions in Euclid depend entirely
upon a recollection of some of those preceding, his memory was of the
utmost service to him. Besides, it was a study exactly adapted to his
mind; and while he was attending to the business of his farm, and
humming over some tune or other, his attention was often engaged with
some of his geometrical propositions. A few figures with a piece of
chalk, upon the knee of his breeches, or any other convenient spot, were
all he needed to clear up the most difficult parts of the science.
He now began to be struck with the works of nature, and paid particular
attention to the theory of the earth, the moon, and the rest of the
planets belonging to this system, of which the sun is the centre; and
considering the distance and magnitude of the different bodies belonging
to it, and the distance of the fixed stars, he soon conceived each of
them to be the centre of a different system. He well considered the law
of gravity, and that of the centripetal and centrifugal forces, and the
cause of the ebbing and flowing of the tides; also the projection of the
sphere--stereographic, orthographic, and gnomical; also trigonometry and
astronomy. By this time he was possessed of a small library.
He next turned his thoughts to algebra, and took up Emerson's treatise
on that subject, and went through it with great success. He also
grounded himself in the art of navigation and the principles of
mechanics; likewise the doctrine of motion, of falling bodies, and the
elements of optics, &c., as a preliminary to fluxions, which had but
lately been discovered by Sir Isaac Newton; as the boundary of the
mathematics, he went through conic sections, &c. Though he experienced
some difficulty at his first entrance, yet he did not rest till he made
himself master of both a fluxion and a flowing quantity. As he had paid
a similar attention to the intermediate parts, he soon became so
conversant with every branch of the mathematics, that no question was
ever proposed to him which he could not answer.
He used to take pleasure in solving the arithmetical questions then
common in the magazines, but his answers were seldom inserted, except by
or in the name of some other person, for he had no ambition to make his
abilities known. He frequently had questions from his pupils and other
gentlemen in London; from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and
different parts of the country, as well as from the university of
Gottingen in Germany. These, however difficult, he never failed to
answer; and from the minute inquiry he made into natural philosophy,
there was scarcely a phenomenon in nature, that ever came to his
knowledge or observation, but he could, in some measure at least,
reasonably account for it.
He went by the name of Willy-o'-th'-Hollins, for many years after he
left his residence in that place. The latter portion of his life was
spent in the neighborhood of Cartmell, where he was best known by the
name of Willy Gibson, still continuing his former occupation. For the
last forty years he kept a school of about eight or ten gentlemen, who
boarded and lodged at his own farm-house; and having a happy turn in
explaining his ideas, he formed a great number of very able
mathematicians, as well as expert accountants. This self-taught
philosopher and wonderful man, died on the 4th of October, 1792, at
Blaith, near Cartmell, in consequence of a fall, leaving behind him a
widow and ten children.