1833 and... Maths

This week's talk in our '1833' series focused on Mathematics , and was given by Mr Campbell.

John Napier, eighth Laird of Merchiston was born in 1550 at Merchiston Tower, which was then just outside the boundary of the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, and was known as the 'Marvellous Merchiston', a title which was well-deserved, for his genius and imaginative vision encompassed a number of fields.

Napier is relatively little known outside mathematical circles where he made what is undoubtedly one of the single greatest advances in the history of mathematics. He can be placed within a short lineage of mathematical thinkers, beginning with Archimedes in ancient times and by Newton and Einstein in modern times.

Without Napier’s work on logarithms it is difficult to imagine how Kepler and Newton could have made their great advances in later times. His work, Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio (A Description of the Wonderful Canon Of Logarithms), published in 1614, contained thirty-seven pages of explanatory matter and ninety pages of tables, which facilitated the furtherment of astronomy, dynamics and physics.

Napier’s powers of invention extended to many aspects of Mathematics. Miss Cordiner, in her talk last term on Charles Babbage, mentioned the invention in 1833 of a calculating device, a precursor of today’s PCs, but more than 200 years previously, John Napier invented an ingenious calculating device and he published a small treatise on a simple way to perform multiplication, the Rabdologiae, which became known as Napier’s 'Rods' or 'Bones'. In an appendix he explained another method of multiplication and division using metal plates, which is the earliest known attempt at a mechanical means of calculation - and which makes him the grandfather of our modern day calculator.

Amongst his other 'Secret Inventions' to defend the country from Philip of Spain, a Roman Catholic monarch and therefore arch-enemy in Napier’s eyes, was a round chariot whereby its occupants could move speedily while firing through holes in its sides - another precursor, this time of the tank; Napier envisaged a ship which could travel under water; and a burning mirror which would consume enemy ships and an artillery piece which could destroy a whole field of soldiers. His ingenuity extended also to farming with his idea of using salt as a fertiliser amongst other novel ideas for tilling the soil.

Folklore describes Napier as a magician - there are stories of supernatural activities based in the top room of  Merchiston Tower (although is fair to say that as this room did not exist in his lifetime, it's likely that this is romantic and superstitious fancy) He was, however, reputed to carry a black spider in a little box and his spiritual familiar was a black cockerel. There is evidence to suggest he was interested in divination, for a contract exists between Napier and Robert Logan of Restalrig, regarding treasure which was supposed to have been hidden in a fortress called Fast Castle in Berwickshire, but there is no record of the outcome.

When John settled down at Merchiston Castle after an interlude in which he did a lot of travelling, he displayed his real inventive spirit. His property abutted lands of the king. Napier was making heroic efforts at cultivating his lands (1571-79), but his seeding efforts were constantly thwarted by huge flocks of doves which were kept on the adjacent royal property. John soaked pieces of bread overnight in good whisky. About half of the quantity he scattered around a newly seeded area and the other half was used as bait in a series of small paper cones which Napier had lined with "bird lime." Of course, the inebriated, bird-brained doves managed to stick their beaks into the wrong places and Napier collected several score and held them at ransom until he was paid the full value of all the seed he had lost.

Napier was able to use his black rooster to tell which of his servants had been stealing from his home. He would shut the suspects in a room with the rooster one at a time and told them to stroke it and it would then tell Napier who had done it. In actual fact what would happen is that he would cover the rooster in charcoal and the servants who were innocent would have no problem stroking it but the guilty would pretend he had and when Napier examined their hands, the one with the clean hands was guilty.

Today,  Merchiston Tower lies a couple of miles along Colinton Road (past George Watson’s College) at the centre of the campus of Napier Universtiy, now well and truly inside the city boundaries. John Napier was a slightly eccentric genius but a genius nonetheless, to whom the world of mathematics is deeply indebted his connection to our own place of learning here at Merchiston should always be remembered…those of you who pass through the Maths department at the School are following in illustrious footsteps!

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