At the age of thirteen he was apprenticed to a millwright. At twenty-one he became a draftsman to James Watt (of steam-engine fame) in Birmingham. His elder brother was Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh U, so mathematical ideas ran in the family. However, William Playfair became interested in politics and the economy, writing several books (in particular, in 1786, The Commercial and Political Atlas). His books contain many effective graphical devices and he is credited with the introduction of pie charts and time series graphs. Playfair died in poverty in Covent Garden, London.

http://enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php/Playfair,_William Fuller biography.