John Machin (bap. 1686?, d. 1751) was an astronomer. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1710 and served as its Secretary between 1718 and 1747. Machin was on the Royal Society committee that mediated Newton and Leibnitz’s dispute over the invention of calculus. Some of his mathematical work was published in the Philosophical Transactions.
Reference:
Anita McConnell, ‘Machin, John (bap. 1686?, d. 1751)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17533 [accessed 19 Aug 2014]).
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