Some Historical Background

The groundwork for this subject was begun in the early part of this century mainly by two French mathematicians, Gaston Julia and Pierre Fatou. Julia, after whom these sets were named, was a soldier during World War I and, during an offensive designed to celebrate the Kaiser's birthday, was wounded. He lost his nose, and, after that, had to wear a leather mask. There was a great deal of work done on this subject for several years, but late in the 1920s the area died out. The subject was renewed in the late 1970s through the computer experiments of Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot of Yale University. In honor of Dr. Mandelbrot, one of the sets which he explored was named after him. Other mathematicians such as Douady, Hubbard, and Sullivan also worked on this subject exploring more of the mathematics than the applications. Since the late 1970s this subject has been at the forefront of contemporary mathematics. Researchers such as Dr. Robert L. Devaney of Boston University have been exploring this subject with the aid of modern computers. Most of the resources used for this paper are books by Dr. Devaney.