John Pell was born on 1st March 1611 in Southwick, Sussex. At the age of thirteen he was accepted into Cambridge University and as well as studying mathematics was an accomplished linguist. In mathematics he concentrated on expanding the scope of algebra in the theory of equations, and on mathematical tables. There is some disagreement whether he, or one of his students, are to be credited with introducing the sign for division (known as the obelus). Pell met and corresponded with all the major mathematicians of the era and when he died his forty volumes of work and correspondence were passed to the Royal Society in Great Britain. During his lifetime he was also the political agent of Oliver Cromwell to the Protestant cantons of Switzerland.
