Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-13
Multiplication by Machinery.
A Lot of Cogs and Wheels that perfor,o ArfthmetfcaI Calculations with Wen, drous Rapidity and Accuracy.
 From the New York Here15 I


 Lot of cogs and Wheels that Perform
 ArithmettcaI Calculations with yon- drous Rapidity and Accuracy.
 From the New York Heraldl
 Nothing seems more paradoxical than to perform the arithmetical operations. which appear to belong exclusively to the mind. bv combination of metallic pieces. Pope Syi- vester H., to whom the world is indebted for the system of Arabic figures tried to make calculating machine. Pascal and i. Leibnitz spent years in vain attempts to solve the problem of mechanical mathematical caIcula- ton, and others worked at the same task until Thomas de Colmar, the French mathe- matician, discovered & method in 1S22 Elaborations of the principles contained in hls machine have been numerous; but all results have only succeeded in perfectino a way to add and subtract This made muiti- pllcatlon possible by adding one factor to it. self as many times as there were units in the tedious S W MT Ramon Verea, Spanish resident of New York, has been devoting his leisure hours for several years in developing ma chine that will multiply and divide, and has finally succeeded. It will produce product havlng fifteen figures and the factors may be or nine or less than nine and six or less than SIX figures. A turn of small crank once for each figure in the multiplier displays the product on disc. The work is almost in stantaneous and the accuracy of it unim- peachable. The machine consists of ten cir c1lar plates placed vertically, and on the edge Of each are figures from to inclusive and zero On the sides of these plates are points which form in substance multiplica- tlon table. Suppose 9 is to be multiplied hv 6. The first plate is turned so that nine shows on top; the other factor is then shown on wheel belonging to similar set as those on. which nine IS shown. When the crank ia turned the multiplicand plate turns six-nintba or revolution and point on tha fourth concentrlc circle of points on the side of the plate IS presented on one side and point on the fifth concentric circle on the other lnese two points meet each a small tongue which operates upon the product box, where the result IS directly shown. The mechanism by which the product is recorded is too con- pl1cated to admit of description except at great length. There are series of wheels worked upon, each of them graduated as to alze and shape with the concentric circles on the plates. It might be said that in the null duplication the additions necessary are made simultaneously with the multiplication For example, multiplying 56 by z the pro- cess Is z times are 42, ' times , are 35 and 4 are 39-product, 392. With the ma chine the work is instantaneous. When the wheel is turned the record is first made of 42 and then of B, that is the 5 is at once added to the figure in the place of the tens of the other number, and the entire product ''bobs up serenely'' as the crank completes the rev olution. If the multiplier were a double number, say 56 by 27, another turn of the crank would make the multiplication and ad dition complete. To prove the operation. pressing button throws into gear new set of wheels, and turn of the crank reduces all the numbers in the product box to zero. Should zero not at once appear it would prove the original operation was wrong.
 Mir. Verea explains that he did not make the machine either to sell its patent or to put 1t into use, but simply to show that it was possible and that Spaniard can invent as well as an American. number of the tests that were made in the presence of a Herald reporter and other visitors were con- ducted with facility and accuracy. The oper- ation of multiplying 9, ,OOo, GOO by 5000 was correctly performed by the machine while the reporter and an accountant were trying to write out the product which they had al ready arrived at by a mental process