Briggs, Henry (1561-1630), an English mathematician, calculated and published the first tables of common logarithms, numbers that can be used to simplify complicated calculations (see Logarithms ). Logarithms are used to describe mathematically many natural phenomena. Briggs’s tables, which were a continuation of the work of the Scottish mathematician John Napier, appeared in 1624 (see Napier, John ). Briggs also invented the method of long division commonly used today. He was born in February 1561 in Warley Wood, near Halifax, West Yorkshire. He was educated at Cambridge University and later taught there. He became a professor of geometry at Gresham College in London. Briggs died in Oxford on Jan. 26, 1630.
