Abstract
AMONG the victims of the plague which ravaged Central Europe during the middle years of the Thirty Years' War was Johann Faulhaber. The exact date of his death, which occurred at Ulm in 1635, is unknown. Like Schickard (see NATURE of October 19, p. 636), Faulhaber was a mathematician of distinction. He dabbled in alchemy, announcing in 1621 that he would produce from one measure of gold two measures of the same metal of the finest quality. In spite of this unsubstantiated claim, he enjoyed a wide reputation as an able mathematician and as a constructor of ramparts and fortifications. He was visited in 1620 by Descartes, who was then serving in the French army in Germany.
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Johann Faulhaber (1580–1635). Nature 136, 862 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136862b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136862b0