Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Muller, John

by Henry Manners Chichester

MULLER, JOHN (1699–1784), mathematician, was born in Germany in 1699. His first book, a treatise on conic sections, published in London in 1736, is dated from the Tower of London, and dedicated to the master-general of the ordnance, the Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, although Muller's name does not appear in the ordnance-lists in 'Angliæ Notitiæ' at this period. In 1741 Muller was appointed head-master of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, at a salary of 200l. a year, by the new master-general [see Montagu, John, second Duke of Montagu]. At first, the academy was a mere school, where the masters, Muller and Thomas Simpson, resented military interference, and the boys defied the masters at will (see Duncan, Hist. Roy. Artillery, vol. i.) Subsequently, matters improved, the cadet-company was formed, the academy enlarged, and Muller appointed professor of fortification and artillery, a post he held until superannuated and pensioned in September 1766 (Records Roy. Mil. Academy). He was 'the scholastic father of all the great engineers this country employed for forty years' (Hill, Boswell, i. 351). He died in April 1784, at the age of eighty-five. A portrait of Muller, painted by J. Hay, was engraved by T. Major (Bromley). His library was sold in 1785 (Nichol, Lit. Anecd. vol. iii.)

Muller published:

1. 'A Mathematical Treatise, containing a System of Conic Sections and the Doctrine of Fluxions and Fluents applied to Various Subjects,' London, 1736, 4to.
2. 'The Attack and Defence of Fortified Places,' London, 1747.
3. 'A Treatise containing the Practical Part of Fortification, for the Use of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich,' London, 1755, 4to.
4. 'A Treatise on Fortification, Regular and Irregular. With Remarks on the Constructions of Vauban and Coehorn,' London, 1756, 4to, 2nd edit.
5. 'The Field Engineer. Translated from the French of De Clairac, London, 1759, 8vo.
6. 'Treatise on Artillery,' a compendious work, London, 1757; with Supplement, London, 1768.
7. 'New System of Mathematics, to which is prefaced an Account of the First Principles of Algebra,' London, 1769, 8vo; another edit. London, 1771.

[Muller's writings; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Gent. Mag. 1784, i. 475.]

H. M. C.