File:Roman tablet employed in making arithmetical calculations (14781129921).jpg

Identifier: illustratedcompa00rich (find matches)
Title: The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary and Greek lexicon; forming a glossary of all the words representing visible objects connected with the arts, manufactures, and every-day life of the Greeks and Romans, with representations of nearly two thousand objects from the antique
Year: 1849 (1840s)
Authors: Rich, Anthony, 1803 or 1804-1891
Subjects: Classical dictionaries
Publisher: London, Longmans
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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Text Appearing Before Image:
A tablet employed in making arithmetical calculations, on the plan
Text Appearing After Image:
of reckoning by decads; similar to that still in use amongst the Chinese (Davis, China, chap. 19.), and commonly called the Pythagorean multiplication table. The illustration re-presents an original first published by Velser. (Histor. Augustan.) It is divided into compartments by parallel channels cut through it, into each of which is inserted a certain number of pins with a button at each end, in order that they might be moved up and down the channels without falling out. The numbers represented by the pins in each channel are marked on it; the longer ones at the bottom are for units ; the shorter, at the top, for decimals. A tray covered with sand was like-wise employed for the same purpose, the lines being drawn out in a similar manner in the sand, and pebbles used, instead of pins, for making the calculations (Pers. Sat. i. 131.); this was still designated by the same name, as was also the tray of the same kind which geometricians used for describing their diagrams. Apul. Apol. p.429. Varior.

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