Oeuvres complètes. Tome VII. Correspondance 1670-1675

N^o 1963.
Chr. Wren à H. Oldenburg.
octobre 1673.
Appendice III au No. 1960.

La lettre a été imprimée dans les Phil. Trans.¹⁾.

Sir,

That I did, in the year 1658. find a Streight line equal to that of a Cycloid, and the parts thereof, was then very well known, not in England only, but in France and Holland. And I have not yet heard of any, who do pretend to have known it, before I discover'd it: which was the same year acknowledged in Print by those of France²⁾. But I do not pretend to have been the first that did ever find a Streight line equal to a Crooked. For I very well know, that Mr. William Neil had, the year before, found out and demonstrated, How to construct a Crooked line so as to be equal to a Streight, by a certain series of Numbers after the method of Dr. Wallis. And though He did not therein demonstrate the other properties of that Line; yet the same were presently after demonstrated by my self and others, and the nature of the Line fully discover's, being a certain Paraboloeid. And that which M. Heurat is said afterwards to have found out, in the year 1659, and M. Fermat in the year 1660, are but the same with that of M. Neile.

1) Voir la note 1 du N^o. 1962. L'article porte l'en-tête suivant:
The other Letter is of Sr. Christopher Wren Kt. Surveyor General of his Majesties Buildings, &c.

2) Voir la Lettre N^o. 1955, note 5.