Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
mathematicianMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
and writer of
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
works titled
Scientific Romances. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the
fourth dimensionIn physics and mathematics, a sequence of n numbers can be understood as a location in an n-dimensional space. When n = 4, the set of all such locations is called 4-dimensional Euclidean space....
, and is known for coining the word
tesseractIn geometry, the tesseract, also called an 8-cell or regular octachoron, is the four-dimensional analog of the cube. The tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of 6 square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of 8 cubical cells...
and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in
theosophyTheosophy is a doctrine of religious philosophy and metaphysics. Theosophy holds that all religions are attempts by the "Spiritual Hierarchy" to help humanity in evolving to greater perfection, and that each religion therefore has a portion of the truth...
.
Life
Hinton taught at Cheltenham Ladies College while he studied at
OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
, where he obtained his B.A. in 1877. From 1880 to 1886, he taught at
Uppingham SchoolUppingham School is a co-educational independent school situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England.The school's current Headmaster, Richard Harman MA, is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the school is a member of the Rugby Group of independent schools...
in
RutlandRutland is a county of mainland England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire, and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, where
Howard CandlerHoward Candler, born March 16, 1851 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the oldest son of his father, Asa Griggs Candler. In 1917, Howard Candler gained complete control of The Coca-Cola Company as a Christmas present from his father{fact}. His younger siblings took seats of the board while he ran the...
, a friend of
Edwin Abbott AbbottEdwin Abbott Abbott , English schoolmaster and theologian, is best known as the author of the mathematical satire and religious allegory Flatland .-Biography:...
's, also taught. Hinton also received his M.A. from Oxford in 1886.
In an 1880 article entitled
"What is the Fourth Dimension?", Hinton suggested that points moving around in three dimensions might be imagined as successive cross-sections of a static four-dimensional arrangement of lines passing through a three-dimensional plane, an idea that anticipated the notion of
world lineIn physics, the world line of an object is the unique path of that object as it travels through 4-dimensional spacetime.The concept of "world line" is distinguished from the concept of "orbit" or "trajectory" by the time dimension, and typically encompasses a large area of spacetime wherein...
s, and of
timeTime is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects...
as a fourth dimension (although Hinton did not propose this explicitly, and the article was mainly concerned with the possibility of a fourth spatial dimension), in Einstein's theory of
relativitySpecial relativity is the physical theory of measurement in inertial frames of reference proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies"...
. Hinton later introduced a system of coloured cubes by the study of which, he claimed, it was possible to learn to visualise four-dimensional space (
Casting out the Self, 1904). Rumours subsequently arose that these cubes had driven more than one hopeful person insane.
Hinton created several new words to describe elements in the fourth dimension. According to OED, he first used the word tesseract in 1888 in his book
A New Era of ThoughtA New Era of Thought is a non-fiction work written by Charles Howard Hinton, was published in 1888 and reprinted in 1900 by Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd., London. A New Era of Thought is about the fourth dimension and its implications on human thinking. It influenced the work of P.D. Ouspensky,...
. He also invented the words "
kata" (from the
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
"down from") and "
ana" (from the Greek "up toward") to describe the two opposing fourth-dimensional directions—the 4-D equivalents of left and right, forwards and backwards, and up and down.
Hinton's
Scientific Romances, including "What is the Fourth Dimension?" and "A Plane World" were published as a series of nine pamphlets by Swan Sonnenschein & Co. during 1884–1886. In the introduction to "A Plane World", Hinton referred to Abbott's recent
FlatlandFlatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. Writing pseudonymously as "a square" , Abbott used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture...
as having similar design but different intent. Abbot used the stories as "a setting wherein to place his satire and his lessons. But we wish in the first place to know the physical facts." Hinton's world existed on the surface of a sphere rather than a flat plane. He extended the connection to Abbott's work with
An Episode on Flatland: Or How a Plain Folk Discovered the Third Dimension (1907).
Hinton was convicted of bigamy for marrying both Mary Ellen (daughter of
Mary Everest BooleMary Everest Boole was a self-taught mathematician who is most well known as an author of didactic works on mathematics, such as Philosophy and Fun of Algebra, and as the wife of fellow mathematician George Boole...
and
George BooleGeorge Boole was anEnglish mathematician and philosopher.As the inventor of Boolean logic, which is the basis of modern digital computer logic, Boole is regarded in hindsight as one of the founders of the field of computer science. Boole said,.....
, the founder of mathematical logic) and Maud Wheldon. He served a single day in prison sentence, then moved with Mary Ellen first to
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
(1886) and later to
Princeton UniversityPrinceton University a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and is considered one of the Colonial Colleges....
in 1893 as an instructor in mathematics.
In 1897, he designed a gunpowder-powered baseball
pitching machineA pitching machine is a machine that automatically pitches a baseball to a batter at different speeds and styles. Most machines are hand-fed, but there are some that automatically feed. There are some pitching machines that will compensate the weight of the ball to make the ball be pitched at a...
for the Princeton baseball team's batting practice. According to one source it caused several injuries, and may have been in part responsible for Hinton's dismissal from Princeton that year. However, the machine was versatile, capable of variable speeds with an adjustable breech size, and firing curve balls by the use of two rubber coated steel fingers at the muzzle of the pitcher. He successfully introduced the machine to the
University of MinnesotaThe University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States...
where Hinton worked as an assistant professor until 1900, when he resigned to move to the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC.
At the end of his life, Hinton worked as an examiner of chemical patents for the United States Patent Office. He died unexpectedly of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 30, 1907.
Influence
Hinton was one of the many abstruse thinkers who circulated in
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , best known as Jorge Luis Borges, was an Argentine writer and poet born in Buenos Aires. In 1914, his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school and traveled to Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and...
's pantheon of writers. Hinton is mentioned in Borges's short story, “El milagro secreto” (“The secret miracle”):
Hinton is mentioned several times in
Alan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer known for work in comics, including the acclaimed comic book series Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell...
's celebrated graphic novel
From HellFrom Hell is a comic book series by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell speculating upon the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper. The title is taken from the first words of the "From Hell" letter, which some authorities believe was an authentic message sent from the killer in 1888...
& his theories regarding the fourth dimension form the basis of the book's final chapter. His father, James Hinton appears in the 4th and 10th chapters.
Books
- Scientific Romances: First and Second Series, orig. 1884 and 1885, reprinted 1976 with an introduction by James Webb, Arno Press, ISBN 0-405-07954-0
- A New Era of Thought
A New Era of Thought is a non-fiction work written by Charles Howard Hinton, was published in 1888 and reprinted in 1900 by Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd., London. A New Era of Thought is about the fourth dimension and its implications on human thinking. It influenced the work of P.D. Ouspensky,...
, orig. 1888, reprinted 1900, by Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd., London
- The Fourth Dimension, orig. 1904, 1912 by Ayer Co., Kessinger Press reprint, ISBN 0-405-07953-2, scanned version available online at the Internet Archive
- Speculations on the Fourth Dimension: Selected Writings of Charles H. Hinton, edited by Rudolf Rucker, 1980, Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-23916-0 (includes selections from Scientific Romances, The Fourth Dimension, "The Recognition of the Fourth Dimension" from the 1902 Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington
The Philosophical Society of Washington is the oldest scientific society in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1871 by Joseph Henry.Its aims are "the promotion of science, the advancement of learning, and the free exchange of views among its members on scientific subjects."Since 1887, the regular...
, and excerpts from An Episode of Flatland)
- An Episode of Flatland or How a Plane Folk Discovered the Third Dimension orig 1907, Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Limd., uncut illustrated HTML version online at Forgotten Futures
External links