Henry Wilbraham (25 July 1825 – 13 February 1883) was an English mathematician. He is known for discovering and explaining the

Gibbs phenomenon In mathematics, the Gibbs phenomenon is the oscillatory behavior of the Fourier series of a piecewise continuously differentiable periodic function around a jump discontinuity. The Nth partial Fourier series of the function (formed by summing ...

nearly fifty years before J. Willard Gibbs did. Gibbs and

Maxime Bôcher Maxime Bôcher (August 28, 1867 – September 12, 1918) was an American mathematician who published about 100 papers on differential equations, series, and algebra. He also wrote elementary texts such as ''Trigonometry'' and ''Analytic Geometry'' ...

, as well as nearly everyone else, were unaware of Wilbraham's paper on the Gibbs phenomenon.

Biography

Henry Wilbraham was born to George and Lady Anne Wilbraham at Delamere,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. His family was privileged, with his father a parliamentarian and his mother the daughter of the

Earl Fortescue Earl Fortescue is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created in 1789 for Hugh Fortescue, 3rd Baron Fortescue (1753–1841), a member of parliament for Beaumaris and Lord-Lieutenant of Devon. History The Earls Fortescue descen ...

. He attended

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

before being admitted to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

at the age of 16. He received a BA in 1846 and an MA in 1849 from Cambridge. At the age of 22 he published his paper on the Gibbs phenomenon. He remained at Trinity as a Fellow until 1856. In 1864 he married Mary Jane Marriott, and together they had seven children. In the last years of his life, he was the District Registrar of the

Chancery Court The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of eq ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

References

* Paul J. Nahin, ''Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula,'' Princeton University Press, 2006. Ch. 4, Sect. 4. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilbraham, Henry 1825 births 1883 deaths 19th-century English mathematicians Mathematical analysts People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People from Cheshire