Abstract
IN the year 1614 John Napier, Baron of Merchiston, published his “Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio,” a small quarto volume, the influence of which upon the development of mathematics, especially as an instrument of calculation, cannot be overestimated. The council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, mindful of the greatness of the boon conferred on science by Napier's invention, convened a committee representative of some twenty societies, corporations, and institutions to discuss the proposal to hold a celebration in memory of the event. The universities and colleges of Scotland, the Faculty of Actuaries, the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, the Institute of Bankers, and other like bodies, also the Royal Society of London, and the Royal Astronomical Society, were represented by delegates to the first meeting of the committee, which was held in the Royal Society Rooms, 22 George Street, Edinburgh, on Saturday, February 22. Mr. J. R. Findlay, one of the representatives of the Edinburgh Merchant Company, was voted to the chair.
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Napier Tercentenary Celebration . Nature 91, 20–21 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/091020b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/091020b0