Wroński's Canons of Logarithms

Abstract

As everyone knows, the electronic computer and the hand calculator have made tables of logarithms all but obsolete as practical aids to calculation. The history of these tables, however, glistens with examples of remarkable diligence and ingenuity. There may be no more striking example of cleverness in this area than Wrofiski's canons of logarithms. This does not seem too strong a claim to make for a scheme that made it possible to put a seven-place table of common logarithms, in readable type, on a single page less than 17 cm by 22 cm in size.