William Playfair
William Playfair was a Scottish engineer and political economist. The founder of graphical methods of statistics, Playfair invented several types of diagrams: in 1786 he introduced the line, area and bar chart of economic data, and in 1801 he published what were likely the first pie chart and circle graph, used to show part-whole relations. Playfair has been reported to have been a secret agent for the British Government, although this has sometimes been a subject of controversy.
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Background
- Born in
- Dundee
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Trending topics shown first"The nature of this trade, certainly not the most honourable in the world, affords room for much investigation and remark in a moral or humane point of view: in a political or commercial light it is pe…"
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Timeline
1759
Born
Birth1823
Died
Death
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Information about William Playfair is sourced from curated knowledge bases and cross-referenced for accuracy. Influence relationships are scored by thematic overlap and historical plausibility.
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