Sir Alfred Bray Kempe
| Sir Alfred Kempe | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
7 July 1849 Kensington, London, England |
| Died | 21 April 1922 (aged 72) London, England |
| Scientific career | |
| Influenced | Charles Sanders Peirce |
Sir Alfred Bray Kempe DCL FRS (6 July 1849, Kensington, London – 21 April 1922, London) was a mathematician best known for his work on linkages and the four colour theorem.
Kempe was the son of the Rector of St James's Church, Piccadilly, the Rev. John Edward Kempe. He was educated at St Paul's School, London and then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge where Arthur Cayley was one of his teachers. He graduated BA (22nd wrangler) in 1872. Despite his interest in mathematics he became a barrister, specialising in the ecclesiastical law. He was knighted in 1913, the same year he became the Chancellor for the Diocese of London. He was also Chancellor of the dioceses of Newcastle, Southwell, St Albans, Peterborough, Chichester, and Chelmsford. He received the honorary degree DCL from the University of Durham and he was elected a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1909.
In 1876 he published his article On a General Method of describing Plane Curves of the nth degree by Linkwork, which showed that for an arbitrary algebraic plane curve a linkage can be constructed that draws the curve. This direct connection between linkages and algebraic curves was recently named the Kempe's Universality Theorem that any bounded subset of an algebraic curve may be traced out by the motion of one of the joints in a suitably chosen linkage. Kempe's proof was flawed, and the first complete proof was provided in 2002, based on his ideas.
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