Scottish Baron John Napier is considered by locals to be a sorcerer who practiced dark arts. Dressed in black, with a jet-black rooster perched on his shoulder (a familiar), he prowled furtively around his castle, muttering what his apocalyptic algebra predicted: the Last Judgement between 1688 and 1700. But beyond this, Napier also discovered the magic of the logarithmic function and Napier’s Number. He translated the complex problem of multiplying two large numbers into the simpler one of adding their logarithms. A discovery that would save man-centuries of calculations over the next three centuries. Napier was also called Napper, lord of Markinston, eighth Lord of Markinston.
