Guinness, Gosset, Fisher, and small samples (Q1091052)

The author, a daughter of Sir R. A. Fisher, describes the environment in which the chemist \textit{W. S. Gosset} (1876--1917), who published under the pseudonym ``\textit{Student}'', worked as a brewer at the Guinness Brewery since 1899. During his academic year 1906--1907 at \textit{Karl Pearson}'s laboratory he worked out the exact solution to the probable error of the mean, he tabulated the \(t\)-distribution for \(n=2,3,\dots,10\), and tried to calculate the distribution of the correlation coefficient. In 1912 \textit{R. A. Fisher} (1890--1962), as an undergraduate at Cambridge, was introduced to Gosset. Fisher studied mathematics and then decided to study biology, especially eugenics. He reconciled Mendelism with Biometry. In 1919 he began his research work at Rothamsted experimental station and developed statistical theory. His new material was published in numerous papers and books, e.g. ``Statistical methods for research workers'' (1925).