JOHN NAPIER

 Logarithms 

John Napier, eighth Laird of Merchiston was born in 1550 at Merchiston Tower, which was then just outside the boundary of the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland,  and was known as the 'Marvellous Merchiston', a title which was well-deserved, for his genius and imaginative vision encompassed a number of fields.

His father, Archibald, the seventh Laird, was only seventeen when his son, John, was born, having been married at the tender age of sixteen !

At the age of thirteen Napier went to St Salvator 's College in St Andrews but left without graduating. If is thought that he then travelled in Europe between 1566 to 1571, perhaps studying in Paris or Holland though there is no corroborative proof of this. It is interesting to note that these were difficult years for Scotland with the dethronement of Queen Mary on the murder of her husband Darnley and the subsequent coronation of her infant son, James.

In 1572,  he married his second wife, Agnes Chisholm by whom he had five sons and five daughters  ( his first wife Elizabeth, from whom he had one son, died within a year ). He died in 1617 and is buried in St Cuthbert 's Churchyard in Edinburgh.

Napier is relatively little known outside mathematical circles where he made what is undoubtedly one of the single greatest advances in the history of mathematics. He can be placed within a short lineage of mathematical thinkers, beginning with Archimedes in ancient times and by Newton and Einstein in modern times.

Without Napier 's work on logarithms it is difficult to imagine how Kepler and Newton could have made their great advances in later times. His work, Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, published in 1614, contained thirty-seven pages of explanatory matter and ninety pages of tables, which facilitated the furtherment of astronomy, dynamics and physics.

Napier 's powers of invention were not exclusively confined to logarithms. He published a small treatise on a simple way to perform multiplication, the Rabdologiae, which became known as Napier 's 'Rods' or 'Bones'. In an appendix he explained another method of multiplication and division using metal plates, which is the earliest known attempt at a mechanical means of calculation - and which makes him the grandfather of our modern day calculator.

Napier, therefore, by inventing the logarithms and the Bones, was the father of the slide-rule, a version of which was still being used in the 1970s at NASA for the development of space travel. Napier was also the father of the scientific calculator and the calculating machine. His contribution to mathematics cannot be over-estimated

Amongst his other ' Secret Inventions ' to defend the country from Philip of Spain, was a round chariot whereby its occupants could move speedily while firing through holes in its sides - a precursor of the tank; a ship which could travel under water; a burning mirror which would consume enemy ships and an artillery piece which could destroy a whole field of soldiers. His ingenuity extended also to farming with his idea of using salt as a fertiliser amongst other novel ideas for tilling the soil.

Napier was born during one of the most exciting periods of Scottish and, indeed, European History. At this time science, philosophy and religion were still not separated as we know them today. Like many other men of genius, including in our own day Albert Einstein, John Napier thought deeply about religion and he wrote what he saw as an equally, if not more, important piece of work as his Logarithmic tables. ' A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of Saint John ', is an explanatory work on the Book of Revelation, a book of Apocalyptic writings which has fascinated men throughout the history of Christendom. Napier believed that the symbols it contained were mathematical ones which could be discovered with reason.

Apocalyptic thought was very much in vogue when Napier wrote this work, with the Roman Church being challenged by the Reformation in many European countries. However, it was particularly relevant to the Scottish experience of the time because there were attempts to re-establish Catholicism in Scotland. Napier went to so far as to travel to London with a delegation of political and religious thinkers to petition the monarch, King James VI.

Folklore describes him as a magician - there are stories of supernatural activities based in the top room of Merchiston Tower. ( As this room did not exist in his lifetime, it's likely that this is romantic and superstitious fancy.) He was reputed to carry a black spider in a little box and that his spiritual famlliar was a black cock. There is evidence to suggest he was interested in divination for a contract exists between Napier and Robert Logan of Restalrig, regarding treasure which was supposed to have been hidden in a fortress called Fast Castle in Berwickshire, but there is no record of the outcome.

Today Merchiston Tower lies at the centre of the
 campus of NAPIER UNIVERSITY ,
 now well and truly inside the city boundaries.

I hope that this short resume about John Napier will be of use to the many students who visit this page in their quest for maths education & homework answers - Editor.

How to calculate multiplying
7777 by 218
using  Logarithms.