Abstract
THE Tercentenary Celebration of the publication of Napier's Description of the Wonderful Canon of Logarithms opened formally on July 24 under the auspices of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. On Thursday at two o'clock, however, the Committee was able to open to the members of the congress the exhibition of books, calculating machines, mathematical models, relics of Napier, portraits, and other objects of mathematical interest. A fair number of visitors had already arrived in the city, and on the Friday morning the examination room of the University, in which the exhibition was arranged, was a lively scene. The tide-predicting machine under the charge of Mr. Edward Roberts attracted a large amount of attention. Many forms of arithmometers and calculating machines, from the abacus of the East and Napier's “Bones” down to the beautiful instruments of the present day occupied a large part of the hall. Each member received, along with his membership card, the handbook of the exhibition, a large octavo of 340 pages, which contained, not only a descriptive catalogue of what was on exhibition, but also sustained scientific articles on sun-dials, slide rules, integraphs, planimeters, harmonic analysers, nomograms, mathematical models, etc., etc. The articles were contributed mainly by members of the mathematical departments of the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, under the editorship of E. M. Horsburgh.
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KNOTT, C. Napier Tercentenary Celebration . Nature 93, 572–573 (1914). https://doi.org/10.1038/093572b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/093572b0