# Paul Tannery: The Tobacco Engineer Who Changed the History of Math Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/math-science-history-7030423/paul-tannery-the-tobacco-engineer-who-changed-the-history-of-math Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/math-science-history-7030423/paul-tannery-the-tobacco-engineer-who-changed-the-history-of-math.md Podcast: [Math! Science! History!](https://stenobird.com/podcast/math-science-history-7030423) Published: 2026-08-18T09:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://mathsciencehistory.libsyn.com/paul-tannery-the-tobacco-engineer-who-changed-the-history-of-math Audio file: https://pdcn.co/e/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/mathsciencehistory/E227_Paul_Tannery_FINAL.mp3?dest-id=1533227 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/math-science-history-7030423/episodes/paul-tannery-the-tobacco-engineer-who-changed-the-history-of-math Duration seconds: 1992 ## Resource Paul Tannery didn't begin his career intending to become one of the most influential historians of mathematics. He trained as an engineer at the Γ‰cole Polytechnique and spent much of his professional life working in France's state tobacco administration. But after work, Tannery pursued a very different passion: ancient mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and the history of science. What began as an intellectual interest became a lifetime of scholarship. 3 TAKEAWAYS: 1. How Paul Tannery transformed a personal passion into groundbreaking scholarship 2. Why Tannery believed historical claims needed evidence, not repetition 3. Why your "side interest" may matter more than you realize RESOURCES: Paul Tannery β€” MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive RenΓ© Taton, "Paul Tannery (1843–1904) Palatine Library - Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta πŸ”— Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com πŸ“š To buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon, visit https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h 🎧 Enjoying the Podcast? β˜• Support the Show : Coffee!! PayPal Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show! Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs! Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform Check out our merch : https://www.mathsciencehistory.com/the-store Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers Waiting for You by Pawel Feszczuk – from Free Music Archive – CC 4.0 Train by Sergey Cheremisinov -from Free Music Archive – CC 4.0 Serene Sonnet by Oleskii Holubiev from Pixabay – CC 0.0 Until next time, carpe diem! ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/math-science-history-7030423/episodes/paul-tannery-the-tobacco-engineer-who-changed-the-history-of-math/transcription-requests` β€” Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/math-science-history-7030423/paul-tannery-the-tobacco-engineer-who-changed-the-history-of-math.md` β€” Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.