Abstract
DR. ALEXANDER RUSSELL'S remarks on the invention of the slide rule (NATURE, January 13, p. 307) are of great interest, particularly his reference to Seth Partridge. There can be no doubt that Partridge deserves much credit for improving the rectilinear slide rule, but I see no escape from the conclusion that the real inventor of the rectilinear slide rule is the one who first made two Gunter's scales to slide together, for purposes of computation. The man who did this is Oughtred. In Mr. Sidney Lee's “Dic. of Nat. Biog.,” article “Partridge, Seth,” and in other publications, the incorrect statement is made that Partridge's book, “Description, &c., of the Double Scale of Proportion,” first appeared in print in 1671 or 1672. I have a copy of the book bearing the date 1662. The manuscript was finished “Saturday night, August first 1657”. In 1662 Partridge's rules were manufactured, not by Walter Hayes, but by “Anthony Thompson, living in Hosier-Lane near West Smithfield, in London.”
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CAJORI, F. The Invention of the Slide Rule. Nature 82, 489 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/082489a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/082489a0
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