AN IMPROVED NUMERICAL TOY
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Jewitt at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd June
1875. A communication from abroad by William Rose, of New
York, United States of America.
I, HENRY JEWITT, of Kentish Town, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
NUMERICAL TOY," a communication to me from abroad by William Rose,
of New York, United States of America, to be as follows :—
This Invention relates to improvements upon an Invention for which
Letters Patent were granted to me the said Henry Jewitt, bearing date
the 29th day of June 1872, No. 1971, and also to certain improvements
upon an Invention for which Letters Patent were granted to me,
bearing date the 4th day of January 1873, No. 55, and intituled "A New
or Improved Toy," and the Specification of the latter Patent sets forth
the object of utility to be the teaching the alphabet to children whilst
they seek to gratify their curiosity.
The object of this Invention is to combine instruction with amuse-
ment, and for this purpose I employ strips or lengths, preferably
triangular, cut off into lengths of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, and ten inches, or other integral parts, and upon each of
these lengths there are on one side as many figures, pictures, or

page_text: "
representations, such as of soldiers, as there are inches or other integral
parts in the length of the strip, and on the other side a word and the
Roman and ordinary numerals corresponding to the length of the strip
and the number of figures; hence there is amusement in setting up the
blocks or strips, and instruction by the comparisons of values of lengths 5
and corresponding numbers, and the words and figures are also learned
corresponding to those numbers, hence a child can be taught by inspection
and observation of actual articles the principles of addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division, and at the same time relative values will
be impressed upon the mind by a comparison of relative lengths, and 1
the corresponding sign and name will also be associated with the
representative value.
Taking the length represented by ten parts as the standard, I provide
one or more of the strips of this length, also one or more of the length
of nine, and so on; there should be twelve blocks of an inch in length, 1
seven of two inches in length, three of four inches in length, and so on,
in order that by placing six and four together to make the length of ten,
or three and seven, or two and eight, and so on, thus the relative
.lengths will become a matter of comparison and estimate.
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To facilitate the computation and comparison, one picture, such as of a 2
soldier, is made to occupy a single space, so that there will be ten of
these upon the longest block, and upon the others there will be two,
three, four, and the like, according to the length of the block or strip,
and upon the back there will be a word such as
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one," five,"
""ten,"
and the like, accompanied by the corresponding ordinary figure and 2
Roman numerals, hence the blocks or strips will be complete in them-
selves with all the elements required for instructive comparisons in
length, and for teaching mental arithmetic.
The strips or "lengths" are by preference isoscles triangles
sectionally, and may be of wood or other material, with the pictures, 3
figures, and the like, printed, stenciled, or pasted thereon, or pasteboard,
thin metal, or stiff paper, may be folded into the triangular shape to
form the strip.