John Napier was a mathematical scholar whose 1614 publication introduced logarithms as a tool for reducing difficult calculations. His construction was expressed through a motion analogy and used a scaling different from the modern convention; identifying his original tables directly with ordinary base-ten tables is misleading. He also developed calculating rods and methods for spherical trigonometry.[ref]
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Napier/. Biography, 1614 publication and construction of logarithms
In modern notation, for positive real . Tables therefore turn multiplication into addition and division into subtraction, followed by an inverse lookup. This was especially valuable for long astronomical and navigational calculations before electronic computers.
Portrait of John Napier
. Unknown artist, 1616; painting presented to University of Edinburgh by Margaret, later Baroness Napier; scan source listed on Commons. Public domain (life-plus-100, pre-1931 U.S. publication), faithful reproduction / PD-Art. Source and usage information on the linked Wikimedia file page. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
John Napier (1550–1617) was a Scottish mathematician, astronomer, and theologian best known for his invention of logarithms. His work on logarithms, published in his 1614 book "Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio," greatly simplified calculations in mathematics and astronomy by transforming multiplicative processes into additive ones. Napier is also credited with the development of Napier's bones, a manual calculating tool that aided in multiplication and division.