Dead Reckonings

"Civilisation loses its treasures by an unconscious process. It has lost them before it has appreciated that they were in the way of being lost; and when I say 'its treasures' I mean the special discoveries and crafts of mankind."

            Hilaire Belloc (1940)

This journal attempts to capture in brief essays my encounters with the technically elegant but nearly forgotten in the mathematical sciences--artistically creative works that can take our breath away with their brilliance. Please click on the About link above for more details.

My Personal Website is at www.myreckonings.com. There is also a related Lost Art in the Mathematical Sciences Forum. Please visit and participate here.

Comments are appreciated! Also, you can click on the Contact Me link below to submit any questions or ideas for new topics.

-- Ron Doerfler  

(All non-guest entry text ©2007-2010 Ron Doerfler. All Rights Reserved.)

May 5, 2010: Well, well, I finally finished my essay on Lallemand's hexagonal charts and triangular coordinate systems! I was writing this essay a long time ago and I thought I would find out where the equations on his chart came from, so I stopped writing and ended up researching and writing my entire essay on Magnetic Deviation before returning to finish it. I may write on something other than graphical computing now, maybe put together all the material on the history of logarithmic tables that I've collected. I also have a 2011 calendar to start... --- Ron