Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2010
In his detailed and valuable account of the history of the Log (this Journal, 9, 70) Commander Waters is surely at fault as regards the part he ascribes to the Gresham Professor, Gunter. This eminent mathematician delighted in designing instruments with engraved scales, and at first issued the customary Description and Use in Latin, a sufficient indication that he wrote only for fellow scholars. Importuned probably by the instrument-makers, he later published English versions of the tracts (in 1623), and among the numerous ‘uses’ included a couple of chapters on those for navigational purposes.