IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING CALCULATIONS
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Numa Gateuil at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd November 1872.
I, JOSEPH NUMA GATEUIL, of Bordeaux, in the Republic of France,
but temporarily residing at 37, Finsbury Square, in the 'County of
Middlesex, Architect, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING CALCULATIONS," to be as follows, that
is to say :-
This Invention consists in the construction of apparatus for effecting
in a simple and expeditious manner the addition of sums of money or of
weights or measure. The operations of subtraction and multiplication
can also be performed by the improved apparatus.
The apparatus is constructed of a number of concentric discs or. dials
of cardboard or other suitable material one above the other placed on an
axis fixed in the centre of a flat tablet of thick cardboard, wood, or
metal. Each alternate dial is moveable. The upper dial is the smallest
and the lower one the largest, and they are divided, and the divisions
numbered according to the various denominations of the sums of money,

page_text: weights, or measures to be added. A narrow bar of wood or metal is
placed over the discs, its inner end being fixed to the top of the said axis,
and its outer end to the tablet outside the lower disc. I prefer that the
fixed discs should be of a light color such as white, and the moveable
discs of a darker color such as yellow.
For the sake of clearness I will describe the construction of an appa-
ratus for effecting the addition of sums of money in pounds, shillings,
and pence. For this purpose eight or more discs are employed. The
first or upper disc is fixed and is divided into twelve divisions numbered
from 1 to 11, the disc being cut away at the 0 division (which is at the
side of the said bar) to allow of one of the figures of the second disc being
visible underneath; the second disc (which is moveable) is also divided
into, twelve divisions numbered from 0 to 11, these two discs are for
representing the pence, the next two discs for representing the shillings.
have each twenty divisions, the fixed one being numbered from 1 to 19,
the 0 division being cut away as for the fixed disc of the pence; the
moveable disc is numbered from 0 to 19, the remaining discs, the number
of which may be increased as required, are to represent the pounds, and
are divided into one hundred divisions, the fixed discs being numbered
from 1 to 99, the 0 divisions being cut away as before; the moveable'
dises are numbered from 0 to 99, the figures up to 9 having a 0 placed
before them.
The figures of the movable discs are placed underneath the figures
of their corresponding fixed discs and a hole is perforated in each
division of the moveable discs; these holes are for allowing the said dises
to be moved by means of a small stem of wood having a pivot or point
at the end. When the apparatus is at zero the ciphers of the moveable
discs will be visible through the cut-away parts of the fixed discs at the
side of the herein-before described bar.
To add together a column of sums of money by this apparatus the
moveable discs are placed at zero, and the pence are first added, thus if
the figure of the pence of the first sum be 5, place the point of the
wooden stem in the hole of the first moveable disc which is opposite the
figure 5 of the first fixed disc, and turn the disc to the right until
the wooden stem comes against the bar, and the figure 5 of the said disc
will be brought under the open part of the fixed disc; if the pence
figure of the next sum be 4, I place the point of the wooden stem in
the hole of the disc opposite the figure 4 of the first disc and turn the

page_text: moveable disc as before when a 9 will appear in the place of the 5; if
the pence figure of the next sum be 10 I turn the disc from the figure
10 of the fixed disc, and 7 will appear in the place of the 9; but as the
disc has been turned more than one revolution the next moveable disc,
videlicet that representing the shillings, must be moved round one
division, and the two discs will shew respectively 1 and 7, representing
one shilling and sevenpence. The shillings are then added in a similar
manner by operating on the second moveable disc, and the pounds by
operating on the third and following moveable discs.
For adding sums of one denomination only the discs having one
hundred divisions are employed, care being taken to add columns of two
figures at a time commencing on the right.