William Playfair Accomplishments

William Playfair was considered a black sheep during his lifetime. It wasn’t until after his death, mathematicians and scientists began to appreciate his inventions. William Playfair is credited for the invention of graphic displays of scientific and mathematical data. William Playfair was born on the twenty-second of September, nineteen fifty-seven near Dundee Scotland. He was the fifth child of eight, born to Reverend James Playfair, who was the minister of a small Parish near Dundee called Liff and Benvie. William’s father died when Will was twelve years old. (Blatchley, Barbara. "Playfair, William.") After his father’s death, John Playfair, Will’s oldest brother, took care of the family. William Playfair wasn’t the only successful child in the family. John Playfair later became a math, geology, and natural philosophy professor at the University of Edinburgh. His two other brothers, James Playfair, who took the name of his father was an architect as well as William Henry Playfair. ("William Playfair.")

Since William Playfair’s invention of the modern line, bar, and pie graphs, there have not been drastic improvements to his invention. Playfair changed the world for different fields as in business, science and mathematics. The invention of graphs gave people the opportunity to understand and read the graph no matter what language they read. Almost a century after William Playfair’s death, people began to completely accept and use his invention. (Howard Wainer. "William Playfair") Playfair wanted to save people

Even though he wasn’t appreciated during his lifetime, he made an immense impact in the world of data. Line, bar, and pie charts are all used in the everyday world, whether it is to show a poll on the public’s movie preference, or to show the progress of a company’s progress. William Playfair attributed to the world by creating graphs and