Abstract

[First paragraph of article] Many modern readers may be inclined to agree with ROBERTRECORDE, when in his Whetstone of Witte (1557) he gives as his reason for taking (( a paire of paralleles, or Gemowe lines of one lengthe, thus: == )) to be his sign of equality - (( bicause noe. 2. thynges, can be moare equalle )). To some readers this choice of the equality symbol may seem so evidently a foreordination, that they cannot readily understand how any other symbol could have been proposed as a serious rival. They experience a very perceptible shock when informed that RECORDE'S symbol had several competitors and that it nearly perished in its fierce struggle for existence.