Boscovich

Boscovich, Roger Joseph, mathematician, was born in 1711 at Ragusa in Dalmatia. He solved the problem of finding the sun's equator, and calculated the time of its rotation by observations of the sun spots. After being appointed mathematical professor in the Collegium Romanum, he was employed by Pope Benedict XIV. in different undertakings, measured in 1750-53 a degree of the meridian in the States of the Church, visited London in 1760 on behalf of the interests of Ragusa, and in 1764 became professor in mathematics at Pavia, which he held with the directorship of the observatory of the Brera at Milan. He subsequently visited Paris, was appointed director of optics for the navy, and received a pension of 8,000 livres. He died insane in 1787. His works comprise a great variety of treatises on mathematical and physical subjects. But he is probably best known by his theory that all bodies are composed of atoms or unextended centres of force, each of which attracts or repels all the rest.