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William Playfair's career was quite eclectic -- he was a risk-taker and flitted from this career to that and. He dabbled in roles as diverse as engineer, draftsman, accountant, inventor ...

And it’s made more of an impact on our world that you might imagine. William Playfair was a Scottish inventor and engineer (and reported scoundrel) who would’ve celebrated his 254th birthday ...

William playfair was born in 1759, the restless fourth son of a Scottish minister. As a young man he worked as personal assistant to the celebrated engineer James Watt–for whom the unit of power ...

William Playfair was born in Scotland in 1759. As an adult, he worked for the Birmingham engineering firm of Boulton and Watt. One of the founders was James Watt, a fellow Scott and the inventor ...

In 1786 William Playfair, a Scottish engineer and secret agent, invented the first bar chart. The Economist was founded in 1843 and printed its first one five years later. Around the same time ...

After 10 years delving into archives on both sides of the Atlantic, Mr. Berkowitz pictures William Playfair almost as a caped crusader who “appears everywhere,” “knows everyone” and ...