Please confirm--or correct--the following sentence: "It was Rene
Descartes who in the 17th century first developed the concept of
combining a long time-line on a horizontal axis with data points on a
vertical axis as a means of providing a visual picture of statistical
changes over extended periods of time."

Thank you!

I don't have the specialized expertise to venture an answer to your
question, but I suspect that this linked site will be a useful
reference for another researcher who wants to give it a try:

Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical
Graphics, and Data Visualization; An illustrated chronology of
innovations
by Michael Friendly and Daniel J. Denis 
http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/milestone/index.html


This page is interesting, as well:

Cabinet Magazine, Issue 13 Spring 2004:A Timeline of Timelines 
Sasha Archibald & Daniel Rosenberg 
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/13/timeslines.php

Lee42 --

Edward Tufte's book "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information"
is not exhaustive but contents that J.H. Lambert (1728)-1777), a
Swiss-German scientist/mathematician, and William Playfaire
(1759-1823), an English economist, invented what he terms "modern
graphical designs," including the first known time series (with X- and
Y- axes).  He claims that Playfair's "The Commercial and Political
Atlas," published in London during 1786 was the first instance of time
series charting.

Descartes doesn't merit a mention in Tufte's 1983 book.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

It's common knowledge (and surprisingly perhaps, true) that the X/Y
coordinates for points in a plane were formally introduced by
Descartes in one of the three appendixes (Geometry) to his "Discourse
on the Method of Properly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking the
Truth in the Sciences".  The four parts were published together as his
first major work, Philosophical Essays, in 1637.

By one account, probably apocryphal, the invention of "Cartesian
coordinates" as they became known was spurred by observations of a fly
on the ceiling:

[Did you know... ?]
http://www.ualr.edu/~lasmoller/descartes.html

However it happened, this appendix on (analytic) geometry was by far
the most important of the appendixes (the other two were on optics and
on weather).

The modern perspective on this work by Descartes is apt to emphasize
its signal opportunity to address geometric problems by algebraic
methods.  Since then the hybrid of geometric and algebraic techniques
has been amazingly fruitful, but it would be stretching things to
claim that Descartes championed the "visual design" aspects of
rectangular coordinate systems as a way of communicating more
effectively.

[René Descarte -- Wikipedia]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%E9_Descartes

The use of two-dimensional coordinates to describe physical layouts
goes back in history to ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and China. 
Descartes contribution was to synthesize the geometry of the plane
with equations in both general and specific ways.  I suspect that as
other Commenters point out, the analogous visual treatment of time as
a dimension lay in the future, though it was doubtless an inevitable
innovation given the success of Descartes in promoting his "method".


regards, mathtalk-ga