Description

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Jacobus (Jacob) de Gelder (near Rotterdam, November 22, 1765 – Leiden, October 10, 1848) was a Dutch mathematician. He served as a model for a new conception of the usefulness and purpose of mathematics that began to emerge in the Netherlands during the early nineteenth century. De Gelder started his career in Rotterdam, where in the years from 1790 he presented himself as “mathematician” or “mathematics teacher”. His first publications date from 1791 and 1794. In the years of the revolution (1796-1813) the number of pupils declined and he had to look for other sources of income. From 1802 to 1806 he was involved as surveyor / mathematician in the mapping of the Netherlands by General Kraijenhoff, from 1807 to 1810 he was a mathematics teacher for the pages of King Louis and in 1811 he worked for the Tax Authorities. He moved to The Hague and Amsterdam during that period. A mathematical society was active in both cities, where he immediately joined as an active member. He established himself as an active advocate for more mathematics education and published his first popular textbooks. In it, De Gelder emerged as a champion for a theoretical introduction to mathematics for all civilized citizens. After the revolution, in 1815, he was automatically assigned the post of professor of higher mathematics to the newly established Artillery and Engineering School in Delft. It soon turned out that the theoretical ambitions that De Gelder pursued with his students went too far for the commander of the program. The quarrel ran so high that De Gelder was de-active in 1819 due to insubordination. De Gelder, however, had powerful friends. Through the Minister of Education, he was appointed extraordinary professor at Leiden University in 1819; five years later he became a full professor. As a professor, De Gelder was involved with the Leiden Latin School, where he taught mathematics for a short time but had to leave because of a quarrel with the rector, and with the Leiden industrial school (affiliated with the university), where he taught descriptive geometry. He also taught mathematics didactics and continued to publish textbooks. His figure art, measurement art, and art (algebra) determined the mathematics program at the Latin schools. As a professor, he had a great deal of influence on educational matters: mathematics became a compulsory part of the curriculum of every study program with an appeal to the educational value that the course was supposed to have for the mind. In 1840, at the age of 75, De Gelder retired. On November 28 of the same year, at the inauguration of William II, he received the award of Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion. He died after a short illness. In 1792 he married Catharina van Rooijen. Eight children were born of the marriage, of which only one reached adulthood.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_de_Gelder