John Taylor (1781-1864)

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For other persons named John Taylor, see John Taylor (disambiguation).

John Taylor (1781-1864) was a publisher, essayist, lawyer, soldier, politician and writer born in East Retford, Nottinghamshire, most remembered for his contributions to Pyramidology and his use of that subject in the fight against adopting the metric system of measurements.

1 Life
2 Publications
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Life

John Taylor's father was a printer and bookseller. He attended school first at Lincoln Grammar School and then he went to the local grammar school in Retford. John Taylor originally apprenticed to his father but eventually he moved to London and worked for James Lackington in 1803. Taylor left after a short while because of his insufficient salary.

In 1821 John Taylor started work at Blackwood Magazine.

John Taylor was the author of the 1859 book "The Great Pyramid", in which he argued that the numbers Pi and Phi may have been deliberately incorporated into the design of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, whose perimeter is close to 2Pi times its height. His theories in Pyramidology were then expanded by Charles Piazzi Smyth.

His 1864 book The Battle of the Standards was a campaign against the adoption of the metric system in England, and relied on results from his first book to show a divine origin for the British units of measure.

[edit] Publications

Taylor, John. The great pyramid; why was it built: & who built it? Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1859 (London).

Taylor, John. The battle of the standards. The ancient, of four thousand years, against the modern, of the last fifty years--The less perfect of the two. Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1864 (London).

These publications are strongly linked, according to Bernard Lightman, who says: "Taylor and his disciples urged that the dimensions of the Pyramid showed the divine origin of the British units of length." ^[1]