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Mathematical Treasure: Wingate's Arithmetic and Table of Logarithms

Author(s): 
Frank J. Swetz (Pennsylvania State University)

Edmund Wingate (1596-1656) was an English mathematician and legal writer. He was a prolific author, publishing several of his works in French before their appearance in English. Arithmetique Made Easie (1652) was first published in 1630 then revised into its 1652 form. The title page of the Second Book (shown below) makes clear that this volume uses logarithms to make arithmetic easier.

In 1648 Wingate published the third edition of The Construction and Use of the Logarithmeticall Tables.

Source: Oughtred Society, Archive of Collections, Tom Wyman Collection. Tom Wyman (1927-2014) was the first president of the Oughtred Society. Wyman assembled an extensive collection of early slide rules and books related to them. The images above are, respectively, #57 and #87 in the Wyman Collection.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank J. Swetz (Pennsylvania State University) , "Mathematical Treasure: Wingate's Arithmetic and Table of Logarithms," Convergence (June 2018)