2 ms·

Wikipedia has a concise enough explanation of Napier's invention and its peculiarity compared to the modern definition [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H

• mindcrime 3y ago
  Of course Wikipedia has a page titled "History of logarithms"! I should have just looked there first. :-)
  • jacobolus 3y ago
    A better source is Cajori's (1913) 7-part history of logarithms in the American Math Monthly, [20(1) 5–14](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2973509 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2973509), [20(2) 35–47](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2974078 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2974078), [20(3) 75–84](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2973441 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2973441), [20(4) 107–117](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2972960 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2972960), [20(5) 148–151](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2972412 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2972412), [20(6) 173–182](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2973069 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2973069), [20(7) 205–210](https://www.jstor.org/stable/2974104 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2974104)