On a Table for the Formation of Logarithms and Anti-Logarithms to Twelve Places

Extract

With the exception of the publication on a more limited scale (and which will be hereafter referred to), of that which is now to be developed, there exists at present no ready and practical method of forming to more than seven places the logarithms of numbers of more than seven or eight figures. The great extent of the tables requisite, if formed on the plan of our present seven-figure tables, is not only likely ever to prove a bar to their construction, but it would also render them too cumbrous, if constructed, to be easily and readily used. In the present method, the end in view is sought to be attained in another way. The principle of the method is the resolution of the number whose logarithm is required, by a direct and easy process, into factors of a peculiar form, the logarithms of which, to the requisite extent, admit of easy tabulation. The logarithms of the factors, then, being taken from the table, their sum is the logarithm of the given number.