Who Was The ‘Marvellous Merchiston’?

Scotland’s Maverick Mathematician

In 1614 an Edinburgh-born mathematician simplified maths forever with the invention of logarithms. His groundbreaking calculations earned him the nickname the ‘Marvellous Merchiston’ among his fellow mathematicians.

However, to others, he was a sinister magician who gained his intellectual abilities through a bargain with the Devil.

His real name was John Napier. Whether he was a mathematic genius or a dark wizard we’ll let you decide.

Ready for a maths lesson?

Napier is best known for discovering logarithms — an easy way to compute large numbers.

Logarithms reduced time and boosted the accuracy of complicated and laborious calculations. The invention became a tremendous boon to scientists, engineers, and astronomers.

Put simply, a logarithm answers the following question:

How many of one number multiply together to make another number?

For example, you need to multiply three 2s to get 8:

2 x 2 x 2 = 8.

In this calculation, the logarithm is 3.

Essentially there are three numbers used in a logarithm:

• The base. The number being multiplied (2 in the above example)

• The logarithm. How often the base is used in a multiplication (3 in the above example)

• The number we want to reach (8 in the above example)

Uses of logarithms

The invention of logarithms solved a problem mathematicians had scratched their heads over for decades. While seemingly abstract, logarithms are used every day in the fields of statistics, science, and technology.

Logarithms are used to calculate:

• The magnitude of earthquakes

• Noise levels in decibels

• pH levels in chemicals

• Exponential growth — whether money or bacteria!

Napier also helped ease the burden of calculation with “Napier’s bones” — essentially the world’s first calculator. He also invented the chessboard abacus, the Promptuary for multiplication, and championed the common use of the decimal point.

In recent times Napier’s logarithms helped plot a bigger picture of the pandemic. Compared to the alarming linear graphs that showed a dramatic upwards spike, logarithmic graphs presented more nuanced data. They showed where the exponential rate of infection stopped and growth leveled off creating a modest curve instead of an explosion.

Linear graphs are sometimes called “panic charts” by mathematicians while logarithms are prized for presenting the bigger picture.

However, to members of the public, logarithms were all witchery.

Occult accusations

Napier wasn’t understood in his day either. At least not by his gossiping neighbours and servants.

Naturally for an academic, Napier spent hours locked in his study. His neighbours found his withdrawal from society suspicious and rumours soon circulated that Napier’s seclusion was due to his secret dabbling in the occult.

According to his neighbours, Napier never travelled without a black spider in a box. The purpose of the spider is unknown but Napier’s other animal companion, a black cockerel, was said to be his familiar spirit.

In Scotland, so-called witches and wizards were often accused of communicating with Auld Nick through their familiar spirits, which could also take human form. Indeed, Napier was accused of practicing necromancy — summoning the dead for divination purposes.

Napier’s astonishing aptitude for problem-solving seemed uncanny to his neighbours. How else could he remove all the grain-guzzling pigeons from his estate if not by magic? What the locals didn’t know was that Napier had soaked some grain in pure alcohol before throwing it over the field. This enabled him to catch the feathered pests with ease when they became too inebriated to fly away. To awestruck locals his logical solution looked like pure Satanism!

The malicious accusations didn’t ruffle Napier’s feathers though. In fact, he used them to his advantage. It came to Napier’s attention that a light-fingered servant had been helping themself to his property. Napier employed his cunning and demonic reputation to catch the thief.

He instructed his servants to enter a darkened chamber. Inside they’d find his familiar spirit, the black cockerel, which he told them to pet. “Be warned,” one can imagine Napier intoning, “For if it crows the thief is known!”

What the servants didn’t know was that Napier had coated the cockerel in soot. He wagered that the thief, afraid of being caught, wouldn’t pet the cockerel. One by one, Napier inspected the servants' hands when they left the room. The person with clean palms, ironically, was the thief.

Of course, the black cockerel’s assistance in the matter only proved Napier’s diabolical powers in the eyes of some.

Napier’s final calculation

A maverick mathematician, Napier also had a keen interest in Theology. He wrote A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John which used a mathematical analysis of The Book of Revelation to predict the Apocalypse.

By Napier’s calculation, the end was nigh. He dated the world’s destruction to 1688 or 1700 at the latest.

Luckily, we’re still here and still using logarithms. Many modern advancements from building bridges, dams, and skyscrapers to splitting atoms and putting men on the moon owe a debt to John Napier’s discovery. Incidentally, the Neper crater on the Moon is named after Napier. Edinburgh’s Napier University is also named in his honour.

Philosopher David Hume described Napier as “the person to whom the title of a great man is more justly due than any other whom his country ever produced.” Living in an era where we all have pocket calculators in the shape of smartphones, Napier’s achievements are all the more impressive.

Born at Merchiston Tower in Edinburgh, Napier lived there till his death in 1617. He was buried at St Giles kirkyard in Edinburgh however his remains have since been transferred to St Cuthbert’s Parish Church where there is a wall-mounted memorial to Napier based on his logarithms. You can also see examples of Napier’s bones at the National Museum of Scotland and his somewhat imposing figure glares down from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

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