ojc THE HisToar OF iiEcnAjfics. S-J-T 



Schaeffer, is the first that is universally allowed to have practised the art. It 

 was introduced into this country by William Caxton. 



« 



Leonardo da Vinci, the most accomplished man of his age, was born about 

 the year 1443, and cKcelled not only in painting and poetry, but also in ar- 

 chitecture, mathematics, and mechanics. The state of practical mechanics 

 in this and the subsequent centuries may be estimated from Ramelli's collec- 

 tion of machines, which contains several curious and useful inventions; some 

 of them long since forgotten, and even lately proposed again as new. 



The works of Bacon, Lord Verulam, although not immediately tending to 

 the advancement of mathematics or of mechanics, are universally allowed to 

 have conduced very materially to the improvement of every branch of science, 

 by the introduction of a correct and conclusive method of philosophical ar- 

 gument and inquiry. Guido Ubaldi published, in 1577, a treatise on me- 

 chanics, not wholly exempt from inaccuracies, and in the following year a 

 valuable commentary on the works of Archimedes : some of the properties 

 of projectiles were about the same time rather imagined than demonstrated 

 by Tartalea: Benedetti soon after began to reason correctly respecting the 

 principles of mechanics; but it was reserved for Galileo to lay the founda- 

 tions of the discoveries, which have succeeded each other with increasing ra- 

 pidity for more than two centuries. He investigated, in the year 1589, the 

 laws of accelerating forces, and showed the nature of the curve which is 

 described by a projectile : he inferred from observation the isochronism of 

 the vibrations of a pendulum, and the principle was soon after applied by 

 Sanctorius to the regulation of timekeepers. Stevinus, a Dutchman, was 

 the first that clearly stated the important law by which the equilibrium of any 

 three forces is determined : and the properties of the centre of gravity were 

 successively investigated by Lucas Valerius, Lafaille, and Guldinus, who 

 made some additions to the elegant propositions of Archimedes which relate 

 to it. 



The application of the more intricate parts of the mathematics, to practical 

 purposes of all kinds, has become incomparably easier and more convenient 

 since the invention of logarithms. This important improvement was made by 

 Baron Napier; his tables were published in 1614: and they were reduced to 



