The History and Development of Nomography

Through a long period in the history of mathematics, geometry was an important auxiliary to perform numerical calculations. In the nineteenth century geometry was used, again, for calculations connected with structural engineering through a body of procedures generically known as Graphical Statics. Toward the end of that century an older idea, of calculation cleverly combining scales displayed on lines, was developed into a new branch of mathematics known as Nomography. Through the work of a brilliant group of mathematicians, of which Maurice D’Ocagne is the best known, this discipline advanced developing means of performing quickly and simply sophisticated calculations required by engineering and science. A theoretical structure was later developed for it, which posed new and deep mathematical problems. In the first third of the twentieth century, with the advent of cheap, reliable mechanical calculating machines-and later with electro-mechanical and electronic ones- the discipline began to loose momentum. Its fascinating story is related for the first time by Dr H. A. Evesham in this valuable and well researched work.

Mr. Evesham’s study of the origins and development of nomography is a real treasure for those wishing to explore nomography beyond the usual elementary treatments. With exceptional clarity he traces the mathematical threads of graphical computation through the earliest work of Lalanne and his “Universal Calculator,” Lallemand and his hexagonal chart concept, Massau’s introduction of determinants as a design tool, and then our modern concept of nomography developed by d’Ocagne, Soreau and others. Perhaps most importantly, this book describes in detail the advanced mathematical efforts by Saint-Robert, Lecornu, Clark, Grönwall, Kellogg and Warmus to identify functional forms that can be constructed as nomograms, a surprisingly difficult task. The original references are generally in languages other than English and published in obscure journals, and Mr. Evesham does a great service in making these advancements available to the modern reader. I can’t express enough my pleasure in reading through this unique and wonderful work.