B chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute - University of Minnesota

of problems; likewise, the description, construction, and
use, of Gunter’s scale.
116
Year: 1794
Place: London
Publisher: J. and W. Watkins
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Figures: 4 engraved folding plates
Binding: modern boards
Pagination: pp. viii, 128
Collation: A 4 B–I 8
Size: 216x131 mm
Reference: Pogg Vol. I, p. 106; Hamb, DI, p. 47
Barrow is identified on the title page as a private teacher
of mathematics in London, a notation that has led to E.
G. R. Taylor (Mathematical practitioners) to ascribe
the book to John Barrow (1700–c.1772), a mathematics
teacher. In fact, the book was written by John Barrow,
later Second Secretary of the Admiralty, who was from
a poor family and was mainly self-educated. He is
known to have repeated Benjamin Franklin’s electrical
experiments with a kite, and it is recorded that he gave
a nasty electrical shock to a woman from the town who
had come to see what he was doing. He was the first to
ascend in a balloon in England, later travelling widely on
expeditions to Greenland, China and South Africa.
This book was sponsored, as were many like it, by a
commercial instrument maker to explain the elementary
uses of mathematical instruments. The publisher, J. &
W. Watkins, sold instruments, and the descriptions of
many contain a phrase such as On the Calipers made
by Messrs. Watkins are contained the following Lines,
Table, etc. This book was his first publication, the likely
result of his having used such instruments in his early
surveying jobs.
The instruments described and pictured in engravings
include the plane and proportional compass, protractor
and plane scale, Gunter’s line of numbers, the sector,
Gunner’s compass, etc. The engravings are very detailed
except for the Gunner’s compass, which, while showing
a fine outline of the device, shows no detail of either the
scales or the tables usually engraved on the arms.
Illustrations available:
Title page
Plate with plane scale, sector, gunner’s compass etc.
Barsotti, Guiseppe, translator
See [Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von] - M.
Lamprecht [Guiseppe Barsotti, translator]; Vita
del Sig. Barone Goffredo Guglielmo di Leibnitz
data in luce dal Signor Lamprecht in lingua
Tedesca, e tradotta in lingua Italiana …, 1787.
Erwin Tomash Library
Barsotti, Guiseppe Bartoli, Cosimo
B 108
Barstow, D.
A secular diary for ascertaining any day of the week or
month, in either the old or new style, commencing 1601,
and continued up to the year 1900.
Year: 1836
Place: n/p
Publisher: Barstow
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Binding: original paper boards
Pagination: broadside
Size: 360x265 mm
This is a single sheet, folded into small covers 127x80
mm, giving tables to determine the day of the week or
month for any given date from 1601 to 1900.
Illustrations available:
Sheet (2)
B 109
Bartoli, Cosimo (1503–1572)
B 107
Del modo di misurare le distantie, le superficie, i corpi,
le piante, le provincie, le prospettive & tutte le altre
cose terrene, che possono occorrere a gli huomini …