The Impact that William Playfair Had on the Modern Ideas of Graphing and Plotting

William Playfair
As A.S. Levens states, in his book, Graphical Methods in Research, many of the currently popular graphical forms are credited to William Playfair (1759-1823), who was a draftsman for another well-known mathematician, James Watt, and brother of the well-known scientist John Playfair (1965: 155).
William Playfair was the youngest of the Reverend James Playfair's three sons. The family resided in Dundee, Scotland. William Playfair was educated at home by his father until the age of fourteen, when he was sent to a university to study mathematics. …