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Abacus
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Title |
Abacus
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Other name |
Wooden Abacus
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Museum |
Historic Hope Plantation
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Date |
1800-1825
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Extent |
Width: 7.75" Height: 8.75"
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Medium |
wood, wire
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Subject |
Abacus
Mathematics
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Spatial |
England/United States
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Description
Abacus in wood frame (HOA 8 3/4" WOA 7 3/4"). Ten horizontal wires in turned wood frame with round finials on top of side supports. Top wire has ten red beads strung on it. The next wire has wine red beads and one white one, the reds continue to decrease one by one. The white increases by one for each following wire, the bottom wire having nine white beads and one red one. English or American, first quarter 19th C.
Transcripton
This abacus has a wood frame that supports ten horizontal wires, ten beads are strung on each wire. The beads are red and white, with the number of white beads increasing toward the bottom of the abacus. This type of abacus is fairly simple counting board in which the tip wire can represent ones, the second ten’s, the third hundreds, and so forth. So with just these top beads arranged this number can be 235, five ones, three tens, and two hundreds. Simple calculations can be preformed by adding or removing beads from the appropriate rows.
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