Does anyone know how they calculated these logarithmic tables back then? Did they use any form of mechanical calculator, abacus, counting table, lookup tables or any other form of aid?
Or did they simply write in out by hand on paper like on is usually taught in elementary school?
As a minor point I forgot to mention yesterday, Napier's logarithm was a different function from modern logarithm but satisfies many log laws in a wary.
Additionally the first accurate multiplication algorithm faster than long multiplication has only been devised in XX century - Karatsuba's.
Abacus is just a mechanical tool that represents long addition and multiplication.
Or did they simply write in out by hand on paper like on is usually taught in elementary school?