"The third... having arrived at the notion of a geometry in which Euclid's postulate is denied is F. L. Wachter, a student under Gauss. It is remarkable that he affirms that even if the postulate be denied, the geometry on a sphere becomes identical with the geometry of Euclid when the radius is indefinitely increased, though it is distinctly shown that the limiting surface is not a plane. This was one of the greatest discoveries of Lobachevsky and Bolyai. If Wachter had lived he might have been the discoverer of non-euclidean geometry, for his insight into the question was far beyond that of the ordinary parallel-postulate demonstrator."
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Chapter 1. Historical, p. 15.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Non-Euclidean_geometry
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Non-Euclidean geometry
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