Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs

This biography follows William Playfair, an eighteenth-century Scottish mathematician whose ideas changed how people organize information. More than 250 years ago, Playfair created the first modern line graph and developed systems that turned numerical information into pictures. Although he was regarded as unsuccessful in his own time, his visual approach to data set him apart. Illustrations support the account of his inventions and their lasting effect on how people interact with data.