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'''William PLAYFAIR'''

b. 22 September 1759 - d. 11 February 1823

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'''Summary.''' William Playfair, engineer, political economist and
scoundrel, was the most important developer of statistical graphics.
In the two centuries since, there has been no appreciable improvement
on his basic designs.

	William Playfair was born at Liff in Scotland during the 
Enlightenment - a
Golden Age in the arts, sciences, industry and commerce. He died in London,
in 1823, after an eventful life, though unmarked at the time by any
apparently significant or memorable contribution. He made little impression
in his native land, and his impact was only slightly greater in England and
France. Yet he is responsible for inventions familiar and useful to us all:
he was the first to devise and publish all of the common statistical graphs
- the pie chart, the bar chart, and the statistical line graph. He invented
a universal language useful to science and commerce alike and though his
contemporaries failed to grasp the significance, Playfair had no doubt that
he had forever changed the way we would look at data. Over a span of thirty
six years he published many books and pamphlets containing statistical
charts and though this work was received with indifference, even hostility,
he never faltered in his conviction that he had found the best way to
display empirical data. However, it took almost a century after his death
before his invention was fully accepted.

	Despite the importance of Playfair's innovations, his name is largely
unknown, even to professional statisticians, and those who have heard of
him know little of his life. One might expect a life of the inventor of
statistical graphs to make dull reading, but Playfair pursued a variety of
careers with such passion, ambition, industry, and optimism that even
without his great inventions, he would be judged a colorful figure. He was,
in turn, millwright, engineer, draftsman, accountant, inventor,
silversmith, merchant, investment broker, economist, statistician,
pamphleteer, translator, publicist, land speculator, convict, banker,
ardent royalist, journalist, editor, and blackmailer. His business
activities were sometimes questionable, if not downright illegal, and it
may fairly be said that he was something of a rogue and scoundrel
(Spence &amp; Wainer (1998)).

	A touch of the scoundrel, or at least of the iconoclast, was an 
important
component in the character of anyone who was to develop statistical
graphics. The Cartesian tradition of graphical representation of
mathematical functions worked against the use of graphs to depict empirical
regularities. The switch to the view that a graph can help us formulate an
understanding of nature by plotting data and looking for patterns required,
in Thomas Kuhn's terms, a shift in paradigm. A person that might effect
such a change would not only require the appropriate intellectual and
technical background, but would also have to disregard the standards of an
academic scientific community that was firmly opposed to illustration in
serious writing. In all aspects Playfair fit the bill. 

	William Playfair was the fourth son of the Reverend James Playfair of 
the
parish of Liff &amp; Benvie near the City of Dundee, Scotland. His father died
in 1772 leaving the eldest brother John to care for the family. John was
subsequently to become one of Britain's foremost mathematicians and
scientists as Professor of Natural Philosophy, Mathematics, and Geology at
Edinburgh University. After an apprenticeship at the Houston Mill with
Andrew Meikle, the inventor of the threshing machine, William became
draftsman and personal assistant to the great James Watt at the steam
engine manufactory of Boulton &amp; Watt at Birmingham in 1777. Thus his
scientific and engineering training was at the hands of the leading figures
of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. On leaving Boulton &amp; Watt
in 1782, Playfair set up a silversmithing business and shop in London, but
the venture soon failed. Seeking his fortune and hoping to apply his
engineering skills to better effect in a developing French economy,
Playfair moved to Paris in 1787. He was involved in more than just business
in a Paris that was about to undergo revolutionary change. Playfair was one
of the approximately twelve hundred inhabitants of the St. Antoine quarter
who formed themselves into a militia and assisted in the storming and
capture of the Bastille.<ref> Lecocq, ''Prise de la Bastille'' </ref>

	In February of 1791 he rescued his friend, the well-known ex-judge, 
Duval d'Epremesnil from the mob in the Palais Royal Gardens;
see Spence &amp; Wainer (1998) for a fuller
description of this adventure.  He was also a
principal in the Scioto debacle - a failed scheme projected to settle
migrants between the Ohio and Scioto rivers - about which was said, "some
hundreds of unfortunate families were lured to destruction by the picture
of a salubrious climate and fertile soil."
<ref> From Gouverneur Morris, Diary. </ref>

Whether on account of alleged
mismanagement and embezzlement, or, as Playfair contends, because of his
plain speaking against the revolutionaries, Playfair left Paris for
Frankfurt in something of a hurry shortly after this adventure.

	In 1793, while in Frankfurt, he heard a description of the semaphore
telegraph from a French emigre. The following day he built a model of the
apparatus and sent it to the Duke of York. He thereafter claimed to have
introduced the semaphore into England. although it seems that his major
contribution was the introduction of a new alphabet for the device<ref>
Credit for both its invention and adoption in the United Kingdom is
usually given to Richard Lovell Edgeworth; as nearly as we could determine,
this attribution of credit is correct.</ref>

	When he returned to London Playfair opened a "security bank", intended 
to ease the granting of small loans by subdividing large securities, but this
soon collapsed after a conflict with the Bank of England. From the
mid-1790s onward he made his living principally as a writer and
pamphleteer. Although initially positive, he argued vehemently against the
excesses of the French Revolution and wrote frequently on the topic of
British policy towards France. He claimed credit for warning of Napoleon's
escape from Elba - a warning which the British government ignored. His
illustrated British Family Antiquity was a massive nine volume undertaking
in which he catalogued the peerage and baronetage of the United Kingdom - a
work principally designed to raise money by subscription. He dabbled in
journalism, editing more than one periodical, the best known of which may
be the ''Tomahawk''. After the restoration of the Bourbons he returned to Paris
as editor of the periodical ''Galignani's Messenger'', but in 1818 his comments
on a duel between Colonel Duffay and Comte de St. Morys were held to be
libelous by the widow and daughter of the latter and led to prosecution.
Playfair was sentenced to three months imprisonment, three hundred francs
fine, and one thousand francs damages. To avoid incarceration he left
France and spent his few remaining years in London writing pamphlets and
doing translations. The final two years saw a renewed interest in economics
and his final publications include several charts, including one or two
rather fine examples that combined the line graph, bar chart, and
chronological diagram in a single chart.  His interest in agricultural
matters was the stimulus for his last two works which examined the
difficulties experienced by English farmers in the early nineteenth
century.

	A common theme throughout Playfair's life was his practical
inventiveness. He had a first class knowledge of engineering practice based
largely on his experience in Matthew Boulton's manufactory - the world's
first modern factory.  He took out several patents, mostly involving
machines for metal working, including a patent for the first mass-produced
silver-plated spoon, but he also proposed innovations such as modifications
to the bows of ships to make them faster and improvements to agricultural
implements. When he was confronted by a problem he would invariably offer a
practical solution - this would often involve the application or adaptation
of what he already knew to work well in other situations. Of equal
importance was his insistence in recording his proposal. For example, about
his arrival in Germany in 1793 he wrote (Spence (1996)), 
<blockquote>
"When I was in Germany I was surprised that in a country where the milk is
excellent the butter was little better than common grease without anything
either of the colour or taste that good butter possesses. But one day in
changing horses where the post master spoke a little French and had a farm
I asked to see the dairy when I found that the milk was kept in deep narrow
jars about three feet deep and eight or nine inches wide. The cream that
rose to the top was about three inches in depth before it was taken off and
though not quite rancid had a disagreeable smell. I advised him to get wide
shallow vessels and keep them very clean but he smiled as if I knew nothing
of the business. I asked him if the Dutch butter was not better than
theirs. He owned it was. I apprised him that the Dutch milk was not so good
as the German and that the excellence of the Dutch butter proceeded from
the better mode of keeping the milk. He did not attempt to answer my
reasoning but gave his head a significant shake and no doubt unless the
French soldiers carried them into a better method in Germany they still
persist in the same."
</blockquote>

	In his political and economic writings he often used numerical examples
and calculations to make a point, frequently demonstrating the
impossibility or absurdity of a commonly held opinion by such calculation.
He found that making sense of empirical information was aided enormously by
the use of statistical graphics and he believed passionately that graphs,
not tables, were the best route to communication and understanding. He
used, refined, and adapted those graphical forms that were known to him
from mathematics and the natural sciences and invented others. He was the
first to use line graphs to portray economic data, including the use of
area to depict surplus and deficit; he adapted Priestley's chronological
charts to produce the first statistical graph that did not incorporate time
as a variable - the bar chart.  He created the pie chart and circle diagram
seemingly with no intellectual precursors.  He was the first to use
hachure, shading, and color, thus incorporating elements of classification
into the quantitative depiction.  The quality and detail of his work was
such that in the two centuries since there has been no appreciable
improvement of his basic designs. His contributions to the development and
demonstrations of the use of statistical graphics in several publications
between 1786 and 1822 remain his life's principal accomplishment.

	In 1786 he published his Commercial and Political Atlas which contained 
44 line graphs and a solitary bar chart (but no maps). This was the first
description of his graphical inventions and is the first major work of any
kind to contain statistical graphs. It met with limited initial success in
England, but fared rather differently in France. Playfair reports<ref>
This note appears on page iv of the pamphlet Playfair 
(1796); it was repeated verbatim on page 6 of the introduction to 
Playfair (1798), and again on page ix in the Introduction to the Third
Edition of his 1786 book. He was obviously very
fond of the royal treatment he received in France.</ref>
<blockquote>
"When I went to France in 1787, I found several copies there, and amongst
others, one which had been sent by an English nobleman to the Monsieur de
Vergennes, which copy he presented to the king, who being well acquainted
with the study of geography, understood it readily, and expressed great
satisfaction. This circumstance was of service to me, when I afterwards
solicited an exclusive privilege for a certain manufactory, which I
obtained. The work was translated into French, and the Academy of Sciences,
testified its approbation of this application of geometry to accounts, and
gave me a general invitation to attend its meetings in the Louvre; and at
the same time did me the honour of seating me by the president during that
sitting." 
</blockquote>

	In his unpublished memoirs written shortly before his death
(Spence (1996)), Playfair adds, "As his majesty made Geography a study, he at once understood the
charts and was highly pleased. He said they spoke all languages and were
very clear and easily understood." The extraordinary growth in the use and
popularity of statistical graphics in the two centuries since their
introduction suggests that Louis XVI 's judgment, in this area at least,
was quite correct. 


====References====
{|
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|valign="top"|{{Ref|1}}||valign="top"|   Playfair, W. (1796). ''For the Use of the Enemies of England: A Real Statement of the Finances and Resources of Great Britain.'' Stockdale, London. 
|-
|valign="top"|{{Ref|2}}||valign="top"|   Playfair, W. (1798). ''Lineal Arithmetic.'' A. Paris, London. 
|-
|valign="top"|{{Ref|3}}||valign="top"|   Playfair, W. (1786). ''The Commercial and Political Atlas.'', (1st ed.) Printed for J. Debrett, London.  (3rd ed., 1801) Printed for J.  Wallis, London. 
|-
|valign="top"|{{Ref|4}}||valign="top"|   Playfair, W. (1809-11). ''British Family Antiquity.'' T. Reynolds and H. Grace, London. 
|-
|valign="top"|{{Ref|5}}||valign="top"|   Spence, I. (1996). Edited transcription of W. Playfair (1822-23), unpublished MS held by John Lawrence Playfair, Toronto, Canada. 
|-
|valign="top"|{{Ref|6}}||valign="top"|   Spence, I. and Wainer, H. (1998). William Playfair: a daring worthless rogue. ''Chance'', '''10''', 31-34.
|-
|}
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Reprinted with permission from
Christopher Charles Heyde and Eugene William Seneta (Editors),
Statisticians of the Centuries, Springer-Verlag Inc., New York, USA.

[[Category:Statprob]]
[[Category:Biographical]]