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Linné on line arrow Mathematics in Linnaeus’ time arrow "our honest Klingenstierna" arrow Students

Students

Among Klingenstierna's students we find many well-known names. Some were active into the 19th century. Here are a few of them:

Ferrner, Bengt (1724 - 1802), held Strömer's chair in astronomy 1756–1758, succeeded Klingenstierna as tutor to Gustaf III in 1764, ennobled in 1766.

Leyonmarck, Gustaf Adolph (1734 - 1815), honorary industrial counselor.

Mallet, Fredric (1728–1797), one of Klingenstierna's most devoted students, sorted through Klingenstierna's manuscripts for eventual publication, professor of geometry at Uppsala. Many of the dissertations he served as preses [president] for were based on Klingenstierna's mathematics manuscripts.

Melanderhielm, Daniel (1726 - 1810), his 1752 master's thesis dealt with Newton's theory of fluxions, held Strömer's chair in astronomy without salary from 1758 to 1761, when he purchased the chair for 15,000 daler in copper coins. He was reimbursed this amount plus interest by an act of Parliament in 1769. In an article he pointed out a miscalculation regarding the orbit of the moon in a theory of the French mathematician d’Alembert. In 1782 he delivered an address on the utility of mathematics before the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in which he also expressed his displeasure at the great popularity that Linnaeus and his disciples were enjoying.

Daniel MelanderhielmMelanderhielm's 1752 master's thesis
Daniel Melanderhielm and his 1752 master's thesis.

Meldercreutz, Jonas (1714–1785), probably not one of Klingenstierna's students, but he succeeded Klingenstierna as professor of mathematics in 1750. He is said not to have carried out his duties very well. His successor Fredric Mallet described his lectures as “confused and deplorable.”

Strömer, Mårten (1707–1770), coeval with Linnaeus and Euler, taught by Klingenstierna in the 1720s, succeeded, on the advice of Klingenstierna, Anders Celsius as professor of astronomy in 1745, wrote the first Swedish translation of Euclid's Elements, a book that was published in innumerable editions up to the end of the 19th century.

Wargentin, Pehr (1717–1783), regarded as the founder of the Office of Tables (now Statistics Sweden) in 1749, was secretary to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for 34 years.