THE INVENTION OF LOGARITHMS 203 



It would thus be possible to reproduce with an absolute 

 accuracy the manuscript tables giving the 28-figure logarithms 

 of the first 10,000 numbers and the 15-figure tables of numbers 

 from 100,000 to 200,000, with the first and second differences, 

 conveniently arranged in one volume of 1,100 pages. The 

 Auxiliary Table, for convenient interpolation when more than 1 1 

 or 12 figures were being used, would occupy another hundred 

 pages. In this way the most important part of Sang's logarithmic 

 calculations would be made accessible to the whole mathematical 

 world ; and the work of calculating anew a fundamental table of 

 logarithms need never again be undertaken. Such a table would 

 form the source of all future tabulations of logarithms. 



It has been estimated that the cost of reproducing by photo- 

 graphy these tables would be about one-third or one-fourth the 

 cost of setting them up in type in the usual way. Much time and 

 risk of error in copying, in setting up, and in proof-correcting 

 would be saved ; and as regards the accuracy of the two methods 

 there is of course no comparison. 



Such, then, is the proposal which I desire to lay before the 

 many interested in logarithms ; and what more fitting outcome 

 of the Napier Tercentenary could there be than making ac- 

 cessible to the civilised world the fundamental part of these 

 great tables, calculated in the very city where Napier invented 

 the logarithm and gained undying fame as a benefactor of his 

 race ? 



