George Boole – An unsung hero
By: Rob O’Connor
Unless someone has been living on Mars for the past 15 years, they would know that Ireland has shown phenomenal economic growth in the recent past. This has been due to, among other things, government subsidies in higher education, increased foreign investment and the cultivation of domestic business. At the forefront of Ireland’s economic revolution was its strong position in the Information Technology market, so much so that we were known as “the silicon valley of Europe.” However, not many people are aware that Ireland’s presence on the technology map is not a new development; in fact every computer circuit in the world is based on mathematical theories developed by a mathematics professor in Cork in the mid-19th century.
George Boole was born in the English industrial town of Lincoln in 1815. His parents were members of the lower working class and in an age so driven by class-structure and social standings, it is quite remarkable that Boole eventually achieved what he did. As a young boy he showed an unusual intelligence and curiosity, which was nurtured by his father who passed on his knowledge and love of mathematics to his son. As he grew older, his father arranged for a friend to teach the boy Latin and by the time he reached adolescence, Boole was fluent in German, Italian and French. When he turned 16 he began working as an assistant teacher and at the age of 20 (after deciding not to enter Church service) he opened his own school.
As well as running his school, Boole continued his private study of mathematics. He became friendly with Duncan Gregory, the editor of the recently founded Cambridge Mathematical Journal who encouraged Boole to undertake a formal degree. However Boole needed the income he earned from his school to support his parents, so a penniless student life was not viable. He carried on his research and at ripe old age of 24 published his first scientific paper – Researches on the Theory of Analytical Transformations – in his friend’s periodical. Over the next ten years he produced a steady stream of papers that gained the attention of intellectual groups and in 1844 he was awarded the Royal Society Medal for his contributions to mathematical analysis. In 1849, he was offered a position on the faculty of Queen’s College Ireland (later to become University College Cork) where he remained for the rest of his life.
As a member of a respected academic institution, Boole found it easier to delve into research and concentrated on refining his methods. He set himself the task of developing a mathematical description for natural-language logical arguments, which could then be manipulated and solved. He came up with a type of linguistic algebra, the three most basic operations of which were (and still are) AND, OR and NOT. With these three functions, he discovered it was possible to perform comparisons or simple mathematical operations. His findings were published in his 1854 work An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities where he gave a detailed description of his binary approach of only processing two objects at any one time, always yielding a Yes/No, On/Off or 1/0 result. As most people know, computers are binary machines and since everything is reduced down to 1s and 0s, all mathematical operations are based on Boole’s work.
Boole’s laws are incredibly simple – but that’s what’s so good about them! They may seem obvious now, but 150 years ago this type of thinking was unheard of. Boole’s work is well-documented elsewhere and any interested individuals can find very good explanations on the Internet (e.g www.kerryr.net) or in mathematical logic textbooks.
Sadly Boole’s career came to an untimely end, when he died at the early age of 49. According to reports, he walked a distance of two miles in the pouring rain from his home to Queen’s College and delivered his final lecture, soaking wet. He developed a feverish cold and soon his lungs became infected. His wife Mary (who was the niece of the explorer Sir George Everest) believed that the remedy for her husband’s illness should resemble the cause. She put him to bed and threw buckets of water over him. He died a few days later.
