The History of Logarithms Mid-Unit

Assignment
Logarithms were invented independently by John Napier, a Scotsman, and by Joost Burgi, a Swiss.
The logarithms which they invented differed from each other and from the common and natural
logarithms now in use. Napier's logarithms were published in 1614; Burgi's logarithms were
published in 1620. The objective of both men was to simplify mathematical calculations. Napier's
approach was algebraic and Burgi's approach was geometric. Neither men had a concept of a
logarithmic base. Napier defined logarithms as a ratio of two distances in a geometric form, as
opposed to the current definition of logarithms as exponents. The possibility of defining logarithms
as exponents was recognized by John Wallis in 1685 and by Johann Bernoulli in 1694. The invention
of the common system of logarithms is due to the combined effort of Napier and Henry Biggs in
1624. Natural logarithms first arose as more or less accidental variations of Napier's original
logarithms. Their real significance was not recognized until later. The earliest natural logarithms
occur in 1618. Logarithms are useful in many fields from finance to astronomy.

Since x > 0, the graph of the above function will be in quadrants I and IV.
Comments on Logarithmic Functions

The exponential equation 4 2=64 could be written in terms of a logarithmic

log 4 64=3 equation as .

1
6−2=
36

The exponential equation can be written as the logarithmic equation.

1
log 6 =-2
36

Since logarithms are nothing more than exponents, you can use the rules of exponents with
logarithms.

Logarithmic functions are the inverse of exponential functions. For example if (4, 16) is a point on
the graph of an exponential function, then (16, 4) would be the corresponding point on the graph of
the inverse logarithmic function.

The two most common logarithms are called common logarithms and natural logarithms. Common
logarithms have a base of 10, and natural logarithms have a base of e.

Early tables

Michael Stifel published Arithmetica integra in Nuremberg in 1544 which contains a table of integers
and powers of 2 that has been considered an early version of a logarithmic table.
The method of logarithms was publicly propounded by John Napier in 1614, in a book entitled
Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio (Description of the Wonderful Rule of Logarithms). The
book contained fifty-seven pages of explanatory matter and ninety pages of tables related to natural
logarithms. The English mathematician Henry Briggs visited Napier in 1615, and proposed a re-
scaling of Napier's logarithms to form what is now known as the common or base-10 logarithms.
Napier delegated to Briggs the computation of a revised table, and they later published, in 1617,
Logarithmorum Chilias Prima ("The First Thousand Logarithms"), which gave a brief account of
logarithms and a table for the first 1000 integers calculated to the 14th decimal place.

In 1624 his Arithmetica Logarithmica, appeared in folio, a work containing the logarithms of thirty-
thousand natural numbers to fourteen decimal places (1-20,000 and 90,001 to 100,000). This table
was later extended by Adriaan Vlacq, but to 10 places, and by Alexander John Thompson to 20
places in 1952.

Briggs was one of the first to use finite-difference methods to compute tables of functions.

Vlacq's table was later found to contain 603 errors, but "this cannot be regarded as a great number,
when it is considered that the table was the result of an original calculation, and that more than
2,100,000 printed figures are liable to error." An edition of Vlacq's work, containing many
corrections, was issued at Leipzig in 1794 under the title Thesaurus Logarithmorum Completus by
Jurij Vega.

François Callet's seven-place table (Paris, 1795), instead of stopping at 100,000, gave the eight-place
logarithms of the numbers between 100,000 and 108,000, in order to diminish the errors of
interpolation, which were greatest in the early part of the table, and this addition was generally
included in seven-place tables. The only important published extension of Vlacq's table was made by
Mr. Sang in 1871, whose table contained the seven-place logarithms of all numbers below 200,000.
A page from Henry Briggs' 1617 Logarithmorum Chilias Prima showing the base-10 (common) logarithm of
the integers 0 to 67 to fourteen decimal places

Briggs and Vlacq also published original tables of the logarithms of the trigonometric functions.
Briggs completed a table of logarithmic sines and logarithmic tangents for the hundredth part of
every degree to fourteen decimal places, with a table of natural sines to fifteen places and the
tangents and secants for the same to ten places, all of which were printed at Gouda in 1631 and
published in 1633 under the title of Trigonometria Britannica. Tables logarithms of trigonometric
functions simplify hand calculations where a function of an angle must be multiplied by another
number, as is often the case.

For different needs, logarithm tables ranging from small handbooks to multi-volume editions have
been compiled

Part of a 20th-century table of common logarithms in the reference book Abramowitz and Stegun.

Within twenty years of the time that Briggs’s tables first appeared, the use of logarithms had spread
worldwide. From being a limited tool of great scientists like Johann Kepler, they had become
commonplace in the schoolrooms of the civilized nations. Logarithms were used extensively in all
trades and professions that required calculations to be done. It is hard to imagine an invention that
has helped the process of computation more dramatically than has logarithms.

Very soon after popularizing of logarithms began attempts for removing of the nasty end error-
prone process of looking into tables and manual adding of numbers. First was a colleague of Brigs
and professor of astronomy at Gresham College—Edmund Gunter (1581-1626). Briggs’s work
naturally came to the notice of Gunter, who had some earlier experience in the development of
calculating instruments, having been one of the major figures in the perfection of an instrument
known as a sector. This experience soon led him to realize that the process of adding together a pair
of logarithms could be partially automated by engraving a scale of logarithms on a piece of wood
and then using a pair of compasses to add together two values in much the same way, as he would
have done when using a sector. Not only did this method eliminate the mental work of addition, but
it also removed the necessity for the error-prone and time-consuming process of looking up the
logarithms in a table. Gunter described his instrument in the book Description and use of the Sector,
the Crosse-staffe and other Instruments, published in 1623. Such a rule is frequently referred to as a
Gunter line or Gunter Scale, often combination not only of a logarithmic scale, but also with chords,
sines, tangents and rhumbs. A two foot long boxwood ruler inscribed with a variety of scales was a
standard navigator’s tool up until the end of the 19th century.

The original Drawing of Gunter Scale from 1624 and part of a wooden Gunter’s Scale

After Gunter, several English mathematicians almost together invented some kind of rules. First
apparently was a friend of Brigs and Gunter—William Oughtred (1574-1660), a priest and one of the
leading mathematicians of his day. Oughtred noted that Gunter’s Line of Numbers required a pair of
dividers in order to measure off the lengths of logarithmic values along the scale and quickly came
up with the idea that, if he had two such scales marked along the edges of the pieces of wood, he
could slide them relative to each other and thus do away with the need for a pair of dividers. He also
saw that if there were two disks, one slightly smaller than the other, with a Line of Numbers
engraved around the edge of each, that they could be pinioned together at their centers and rotated
relative to one another to give the same effect as having Gunter’s scale engraved on two bits of
wood.

Oughtred invented the rectangular movable slide rule and the circular slide rule around 1622, but
published the description as late as 1632.
Oughtred’s Circles of Proportion

Oughtred probably his devices to one of his pupils, Richard Delamain (1600-1644), who was a
teacher of mathematics, living and working in London . Delamain, described a circular slide rule in a
32 page pamphlet Grammelogia which was sent to the King in 1629 and published the following
year.

The first description of the Gunter’s logarithmic scale in the form of a plain scale was published in
1624 in Paris by the mathematician Edmund Wingate (1596-1656). Wingate included a copperplate
engraving, measuring 25 inches in length, of Gunter’s scales. In 1628 Wingate published an English
translation of this work with the title The Construction and Use of the Line of Proportion… This book
contains a double scale, on one side of which is a logarithmic scale, on the other a tabular scale. One
simply reads the logarithm of a number on the logarithmic scale by examining the proportional scale
next to it. This is not yet a contemporary slide rule, since it has no moving parts and is not a Gunter
line, since one does not perform calculations with the aid of pair of compasses: it is simply a
diagrammatic substitute for a table of logarithms.
The earliest known dated slide rule (which uses wooden scales bound together with metal bands), is
the rule of Robert Bissaker, manufactured in 1654. It is about 60 cm in length, with section about 6
sq. cm and consists of 3 wooden scaled plates, as the 2 outer plates are fixed by means of a copper
frame, while the inner plate can be slide between them.

It seems that the idea of the slider (called also cursor or runner), important element of a
contemporary slide rule, first came to the great scientist Isaac Newton (1643-1727). In 1675 Newton
demonstrated a way for solving of equations from the third degree, using 1 unmovable and 3
movable logarithmic scales and a slider. As a element of the slide rule however, the slider appeared
100 years late in the rule of mathematician John Robertson (1707–1776). In 1775 he added the
cursor or runner, which allowed setting to be transferred to any of several parallel scales, as well as
holding a position while the slide was moved.

The English inventor James Watt, known for his work on the steam engine, was responsible, at least
in part, for one of the first really well-made slide rules in the end of 18th century. He devised a
simple slide rule consisting of one sliding piece between two fixed stocks (a design that had been in
use for a considerable period of time), carefully engraved the face with four basic scales, and put
tables of various constants on the back. His rule was accurate enough that others soon requested
copies for themselves and Watt manufactured this so-called Soho Slide Rule for several years.

James Watt’s slide rule Soho

Victor Mayer Amédée Mannheim (1831-1906), an officer of the French artillery, invented in 1850s
what may be considered the first of the modern slide rules. He designed a very simple slide rule
much like that manufactured by Watt, but added the movable double-sided cursor, which is a
integral part of the slide rule today. Mannheim’s design was adopted as the standard for the French
artillery and, after a few years, examples of it began to appear in other countries.

Once established, the progress of the slide rule was extremely rapid. Many different forms were
produced by several different major manufacturers. The number of scales to be found on each
instrument increased to the point that eighteen or twenty different scales were regularly engraved
on the better quality instruments. Both sides of the rule were used and the center, sliding portion
could often be turned over or completely replaced to provide even more combinations of scales.
Special slide rules incorporating such things as a scale of atomic and molecular weights were created
for chemists, and almost any branch of science or engineering could boast that at least one
manufacturer produced a slide rule designed for their particular use.

The accuracy of the slide rule was improved by several people who modified the basic form so that
the logarithmic scales were wrapped around cylinders or into spirals. One device, known as Fuller’s
Slide Rule, invented by the Professor of Engineering at Queen’s College Belfast George Fuller in
1860s was equivalent to a standard slide rule over eighty-four feet long, yet could be easily held in
the hand. It was possible to work correctly to four figures, and sometimes even five, with this
particular unit.

Fuller’s Slide Rule

A similar as Fuller’s slide rule was made by Edwin Thacher of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1870s.
Placing the logarithmic scale on a drum and series of crosspieces, the Thacher functioned like an 18-
meter slide rule for calculations up to five significant digits. Inventor Thacher patented it in 1881.This
one was manufactured by Keuffel & Esser of New York around 1887.
 Referans

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_logarithms

2. Hobson, Ernest William (1914), John Napier and the invention of logarithms, 1614, Cambridge:
The University Press

3. Gladstone-Millar, Lynne (2003),  John Napier: Logarithm John, National Museums Of

4. Napier, Mark (1834),  Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, p.

5. "Napier's approach to logarithms".

6.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267939664_Remembering_John_Napier_and_His_
Logarithms_Remembering_John_Napier_and_His_Logarithms