From the Editor's Desk

When Nevil Maskelyne, the British Astronomer Royal from 176521811, wanted to describe a calculation, he would create a grid. Taking a sheet of paper, he would fold it into quarters and divide it into cells with lines drawn with quill-tipped pen. Next to each cell, he would write an arithmetic expression. Take a value from one cell, the expression might suggest, multiply it by a constant and divide the result by the contents of a second cell. The value, thus obtained, should be placed in the adjacent cell. If he needed to explain an idea, he would sketch a graph on the back of the paper.