Samuel Klingenstierna (18 August 1698 – 26 October 1765) was a Swedish mathematician and scientist. He started his career as a lawyer but soon moved to

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...

. As a student he gave lectures on the then novel mathematical analysis of Newton and

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to many ...

. Klingenstierna was a professor of geometry at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

from 1728. In 1750 he moved to physics but retired two years later to become an advisor to the Commander of Artillery. In 1756 he assumed the post of the tutor of the Crown Prince, the future king

Gustav III Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw ...

. He was the first to enunciate errors in Newton's theories of refraction, geometrical notes that

John Dollond John Dollond (30 November 1761) was an English optician, known for his successful optics business and his patenting and commercialization of achromatic doublets. Biography Dollond was the son of a Huguenot refugee, a silk-weaver at Spitalfie ...

used in his experiments. Later on he was instrumental in the

invention An invention is a unique or novelty (patent), novel machine, device, Method_(patent), method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It m ...

of the

Achromatic Telescope The achromatic telescope is a refracting telescope that uses an achromatic lens to correct for chromatic aberration. How it works When an image passes through a lens, the light is refracted at different angles for different wavelengths. This re ...

. Klingenstierna published in Sweden and in Swedish, and his priority was not recognized.

References

* Lars Gårding: ''Matematik och Matematiker''. 1996. Lund University Press. * "Klingenstierna, Samuel." ''Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography''. 2008. Charles Scribner's Sons
Encyclopedia.com. 21 Jan. 2010
1698 births 1765 deaths 18th-century Swedish nobility Academic staff of Uppsala University Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society 18th-century Swedish mathematicians {{Sweden-mathematician-stub