Only three years previously, in 1614, the Scottish mathematician
John Napier had formulated a logarithm very similar to that now
known as the 'natural logarithm'. Over the subsequent few years,
Briggs and Napier had worked in collaboration to develop this
discovery. Briggs's key contibution to the field was the proposal
that the logarithms should use base 10, for ease of calculation.
Napier died in April 1617, but Briggs pressed ahead with their
discoveries, and soon afterwards produced his
Logarithmorum Chilias Prima
('Introduction to Logarithms').
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