Briggs
Briggs names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Briggs HENRY, an English mathematician
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HENRY, an English mathematician, born near Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1561; studied at St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1592 he was appointed reader of the Physic Lecture founded by Dr. Linacre, and in 1596 first reader in geometry at Gresham House (afterward College), London, and in 1619 first Savilian Professor of Astronomy in Oxford. He made an important contribution to the theory of logarithms, of which he constructed invaluable tables, containing an improvement which was adopted by Napier the inventor. He Prima" in 1617, containing the first published his "Logarithmorum Chilias thousand natural numbers calculated to eight decimal places. He was also the author of a tract on the "Northwest Passage to the South Seas," by way of in 1624 he published his "Arithmetica Logarithmica," the fruit of many years Virginia and Hudson Bay (1622), and of unwearied application . His system adopted. He next employed himself on of logarithms is that now commonly a table of logarithms of sines and tangents, carried to the hundredth part of a degree, and to 15 places, which, with a table of natural sines, tangents, and land, in 1631, and published in London secants, was printed at Gouda, in Holin 1633, under the title of "Trigonometria Britannica. " He died in Oxford, Jan. 26, 1631.
Briggs HENRY, an English mathe-
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HENRY, an English mathe- , Yorkshire, matician, born near Halifax in 1561; studied at St. John's College, other Australian ports, as well as with there is an London (11,295 miles), and on both sides extensive system of wharfs of the river. Brisbane was settled as a penal sta- , Govtion, in 1825, by Sir T. Brisbane In 1836 the ernor of New South Wales. of the comtown comprised the houses , a mandant and other officers, barracks etc. Three years later tread mill, stores, object. She learned to know people almost instantly by the touch alone. In a year or two more she was able to receive lessons in geography, algebra, and history. She received and answered letters from all parts of the world. She learned to write a fair, legible, square hand, and to read with great dexterity. She died May 4, 1889.
Briggs CHARLES AUGUSTUS, an American clergyman and religious writer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHARLES AUGUSTUS, an American clergyman and religious writer, born in New York City, Jan. 15, 1841. In 1874 he was appointed Professor of Hebrew in Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was tried for heresy in 1892, but was acquitted. In 1899 he formally severed his connection with the New York Presbytery and was ordained man of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Among his works are " American Presbyterianism" (1885); "The Messiah of the Apostles" (1886); " The Messiah of the Gospels," "The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch," and "The Bible, the Church, and the Reason"; "Christian Unity" (1909); "Theological Symbolics" (posthumous, 1914). He died in 1913.
Briggs FRANK OBADIAH, American Senator
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
FRANK OBADIAH, American Senator; born at Concord, N. H., Aug. 12, 1851. He was graduated from the U. S. Military Academy in 1872, becoming second lieutenant in the Second Regiment of infantry. In 1877 he resigned from the army and settled in Trenton, N. J., joining the John A. Roebling's Sons Co. In 1899 he was chosen mayor of Trenton, in 1901 became a member of the State Board of Education, and in 1902 State Treasurer. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1907, but was defeated in 1912. He died in the following year.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's says Charles Augustus Briggs "was tried for heresy in 1892, but was acquitted" — the New York Presbytery did acquit him, but the General Assembly reversed that and suspended him from the Presbyterian ministry the following year, which is why he took Episcopal orders in 1899; the higher criticism he was condemned for is now ordinary seminary teaching, Protestant and Catholic alike. The entry omits what actually kept his name alive: the Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament he produced with Francis Brown and S. R. Driver (1906), known universally as Brown-Driver-Briggs and still sold and cited today. Henry Briggs's base-ten logarithms are likewise still called Briggsian, but the printed tables he spent years computing to eight and fifteen places — the whole point of his life's labour — were made obsolete by the pocket calculator in the 1970s and have vanished from school examinations. Frank Obadiah Briggs remains what Collier's describes, a one-term senator who died in 1913.
Written for this edition, 2026.