 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Exposition «
Calculatrices et Ordinateurs d’antan
»
7
Ordinateurs et Calculatrices d’antan
Timeline of Logarithms
by Anthony Fogleman
1550
John Napier was born in Edinburgh Scotland.
1552
Jobst Bürgi was born in Switzerland.
1588
Bürgi began working on his logarithms independent of Napier (I
was unable to find the base to which Bürgi created his
logarithms).
~1594
John Napier started work on his tables and spent the next twenty
years completing. The tables were for trigonometric applications
and gave the logarithms for the sine of angles 30o to 90o.
Although Napier did not actually use in his logarithms it could be
said his base was roughly 1/e.
1614
Napier published “Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio” in
which he discusses his logarithms.
10
March
1615
Henry Briggs wrote a letter roughly translating questions Napier’s
use of his base (1/e) and why he did not use base 10 and log 1
= 0. Napier replied that he too had the idea but could not create
the tables due to an illness.
Summer
1615
Henry Briggs visited John Napier and they spent a month
working on the
tables for the logarithms to base 10.
1616
Henry Briggs visited John Napier a second time.
4 April
1617
John Napier passed away.
1617
Briggs published his “Logarithmorum Chilias Prima” which
contained his tables for logarithms to base 10.
1619
“Mirifici logarithmorum canonis constructio” is published in which
the method
Napier used for constructing his logarithms is discussed.
1620
Bürgis’ were published in his “Arithmetische und Geometrische
Progress-Tabulen.”
Bürgi’s work went unnoticed due to the beginning of the Thirty
Years’ War.
1622
William Oughtred invented the slide rule, which offered an even
Logarithmes-
timeline