John Napier and the Invention of Logarithms 1614, a Lecture.
Cambridge university Press 1914, first edition; 48 pages, illustrations and plates.
Condition: Good+ overall, red hardcover stamped titles in gilt on spine and cover; small spot and abrasion at lower front corner, spine darkened, a bit of wear at spine ends, scuffing and smudges to boards; hinges weak.. Pages clean with only prev. owner's name.
Keywords: napier, logarithms, calculus, history of computing, napier tercentenary exhibition, napier's bones, Rabdology
Categories: Biography and Company Histories, Highspots in the History of Computing, Mathematics
See all items by E. W. Hobson
Price: $150.00
Item Description
In the present year (1914) there will be held a celebration, under the auspices of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the tercentenary of one of the great events in the history of Science, the publication of John Napier's Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio ... the invention of Logarithms not only marks an advance of the first importance in Mathematical Science, but as providing a great labour-saving instrument for the use of all those who have occasion to carry out extensive numerical calculation; (from the book)Includes a summary of the Life of Napier; Reception of the Canon by contemporary mathematicians; The contents of the Descriptio and of the Constructio (with a fullpage photograph reproducing a specimen page of the tables); The Decimal Point; the limits of a logarithm;
First table, Second Table, Third Table, radical table, short table; the Accuracy of Napier's Canon; the improved system of logarithms; Other tables; Predecessors of Napier; a Rival inventor; conclusion.