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G F Martelli versus G Pouvreau
From: Paul Bedel
Date: 2016 Mar 12, 09:37 -0800

In 1873, Martelli published "Tables of Logarithms, a Simple and Accurate Method for Finding the Apparent Time". The editor was Lightning Printing Office in New-Orleans. A second edition was published in Great Britain in 1882 followed by a lot of reprints and new editions, the last one by Kelvin Hughes at the end of the 60s or the beginning of the 70s.

In 1885, Georges Pouvreau, master mariner, published "Nouvelles Tables de Mer pour le Calcul de la Hauteur, de l'Heure et de l'Azimut". The editor was Gauthier-Villars in Paris. It seems that those tables had no success because they were not reprinted and only very few copies are available in librairies. Pouvreau's tables are constructed with exactly the same formulae as Martelli's. I have noted the following differences between the two booklets: Pouvreau presents and explains all the formulae used (there are no more Martelli's Mysteries as Cotter said), the numbers are written with 5 figures in Pouvreau's and 4 figures in Martelli's, the order of the 5 tables is not the same. The attached file is a little study about Martelli's tables. My questions are:

1) In 1946, Ch. Smiley wrote in "Mathematical Tables and Other Aids to Computation" (vol 2, n° 15): "To date, no trace of the personnal history of Martelli has been found by the reviewer." ... is there something new about Martelli in 2016 ?

2) Martelli and Pouvreau have used the same curious alterations of the formulae. What is the link between them ? (if there is one).

I'll be happy to have the point of view of NavListers about those questions.

Paul.

File:

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