William Morgan Eighteenth-Century Actuary, Mathematician and Radical

At the age of twenty-five-and with no formal training-Morgan became an actuary at the Equitable, then a fledgling life insurance company. It was the first step on a path that would lead him to be dubbed "the father of actuarial science" and earn him the Copley Medal, the most prestigious award given by the Royal Society. His interests went far beyond actuarial tables, however-his papers on his electrical experiments reveal that, albeit unwittingly, he constructed the first X-ray tube. And as a political radical, his outspoken views put him at risk of imprisonment during Pitt's Reign of Terror. This accessible biography introduces readers to a fascinating polymath whose influence is still being felt today.
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