John Wilkins (January 1, 1614 – November 19, 1672) was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author. He was the founder of the metric system and first secretary of the Royal Society in 1660 and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.
Wilkins is the only person to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He was a polymath, although not a deep innovator in science. His personal qualities w...
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John Wilkins (January 1, 1614 – November 19, 1672) was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author. He was the founder of the metric system and first secretary of the Royal Society in 1660 and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.
Wilkins is the only person to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He was a polymath, although not a deep innovator in science. His personal qualities were brought out, and obvious to his contemporaries, in reducing political tension in Interregnum Oxford, in founding the Royal Society on non-partisan lines, and in efforts to reach out to religious nonconformists. He was one of the founders of the new natural theology compatible with the science of the time.
As an author, he is particularly known for An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language in which, amongst other things, he proposed a decimal system of measure not unlike the modern metric system. The Ballad of Gresham...
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