Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coggeshall, Henry
COGGESHALL, HENRY (1623–1690), mathematician, was the third son of John Coggeshall of Orford in Suffolk, where he was baptised 23 Dec. 1623, and buried 19 Feb. 1690. He married, and left one son, William Coggeshall of Diss, Norfolk. He invented the sliding-rule known by his name, first described by him in 1677 in a pamphlet entitled. 'Timber-Measure by a Line of more Ease, Dispatch, and Exactness than any other Way now in use, by a Double Scale. As also Stone-Measure and Gauging of Vessels by the same near and exact Way. Likewise a Diagonal Scale of 100 parts in a Quarter of an Inch, very easie both to make and use' (London, 1677). He soon after improved the rule, and revised the little work in which the mode of using it was set forth, republishing it in 1682, with the heading, 'A Treatise of Measuring by a Two-foot Rule which slides to a Foot.' A third, considerably modified, edition appeared in 1722. It was designated 'The Art of Practical Measuring easily performed by a Two-foot Rule which slides to a Foot,' and contained ' some useful Instructions in Decimal Arithmetick, and lastly some useful Directions in Dialling not hitherto published.' A fourth edition, carefully revised by John Ham, was issued in 1729, and a seventh in 1767.
[Davy's Athenæ Suffolcences, in Brit. Mus. MSS. i. 533 ; Button's Mathematical Diet. ii. 404.]