JOHN NAPIER !

<

Curious as always, I wondered how Napier had got its name.
We visited the town the first time we came to New Zealand and we're going for a second visit today.
I discovered that Napier is the name of a famous Scotsman!

He was described as ‘the person to whom the title of great man is more justly due than to any other whom this country has produced’.
So, he must have been quite a fellow!

He was actually a 16th-century mathematician, philosopher and inventor - which would explain why I don't know much about him! Born in 1550.

He lived in a secluded tower in Scotland, and invented logarithms and the decimal notation for complex fractions ... wow, is all I can say!

For decades he apparently wrestled with mathematics in the privacy of his home, while his superstitious neighbours grew convinced he was involved in sorcery and witchcraft.

He didn't help by dressing in a long, black gown to match his thick, black beard.
He had five sons and five daughters and a pet black cockerel ( and no, Miriam, I'm not making it up!)




He achieved one of the greatest mathematical discoveries of all time while living through one of the most violent and turbulent periods in Scotland’s history.

Some of his inventions included: a giant mirror to burn enemy ships by focusing the sun's rays on them, a man-powered tank, a submarine, and a form of artillery which could clear a field of anything standing over a foot high. None of these were ever used!



Before his death Napier had left full details of how his logarithms had been calculated, and left one final invention: Napier's Rods, or Napier's Bones as they were called from the material they were made of, were in effect a powerful pocket calculator!!

After all that, I discover that only in New Zealand would they name a town Napier, and not name it after THE famous John Napier, but rather the town was named after Sir Charles Napier, hero of the Battle of Meeanee in the Indian province of Sindh.