IMPROVED ABACUS OR APPARATUS FOR TEACHING ARITHMETIC
Year: 1885

page_text: I, HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of 67, Strand, in the City of Westminster, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of said invention for IMPROVED ABACUS
OR APPARATUS FOR TEACHING ARITHMETIC, a communication to me from abroad by
Charles Pelletier, Teacher, of Cussy-les-Forges, France, to be as follows:-
This invention relates to apparatus, known under the name of abacus, and
serving to teach arithmetic by means of movable black or coloured balls arranged
in several superposed series in front of a vertical board.
"
The improved abacus is composed of three sections or panels placed side by side.
The first or right hand section has ten horizontal wires or thin rods placed one
over the other, the uppermost wire carrying one ball,, the second two balls, and so
on, until 10. These balls represent the units. At the side of the first section is a
vertical strip carrying the numerals 1, 2, 3 ..... 9 and 0, and indicating the
number of balls.
Between this vertical column and the second compartment there is a blank strip
for movable numerals.
The second or central section or compartment is similar to the first, but in reversed
order (beginning with 10 balls at the top and ending with one at the bottoin) and
contains balls ten times larger than those of the first compartment. It has also on
the left side a vertical row of numerals, indicating the tens, and a blank strip on
the right side of this vertical row is adapted to receive movable numerals, so that
all numbers up to 100 may be represented.
The third or left hand compartment contains a ball ten times as large as those of
the preceeding compartment, and which represents the hundreds.
On the left of the ball are two blank strips for movable numerals and then a
vertical row of numerals from 1 to 10, which allows one to write all numbers up
to 1000.
This abacus is provided at the bottom with movable numerals, and in the lower
right hand corner with a table with divisions bearing the titles: units, tens,
hundreds, tenths, hundredths, and thousandths.
1

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I, HERBERT JOHN HADDAN of 67 Strand, in the City of Westminster, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of said invention, a communication to me
from abroad by Charles Pelletier, Teacher, of Cussy-les-Forges, France, and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This abacus comprises of three principal compartments or sections.
1st In the first compartment (at the right side) there are ten thin horizontal
rods, the first of which bears one ball, the second two balls, etc up to ten. .These
ten balls represent the units. At the (left) side there is a narrow strip provided
with a vertical row of numerals 1 to 0 and indicating the number of balls, and a
groove for the movable ciphers or numerals to slide in, which arrangement allows
one to représent all numbers up to 99.
2nd The second compartment is similar to the first one in the inverse direction,
bearing balls ten times as large, which represent the tens, and there is equally a
column.of ciphers indicating the number of tens, with a groove at the right of the
column, permitting to write or represent by the aid of movable ciphers all numbers
up to 100.
3rd The third compartment encloses a ball ten times as large as the tens and
representing the hundreds, and having at the left side a column of ten ciphers, and
two grooves at the right side of the latter for representing all numbers up to 1000.
This abacus is furnished with movable ciphers situated in a horizontal bottom
row, and it carries underneath a table indicating the Millions, Thousands, Units,
Decimals, and the three sub-divisions of each of the first three classes or main
rows are superscribed U (units) D (tens) C (hundreds) and the fourth D (tenths)
C (hundredths) M (thousandths), and corresponding to their units the words Deca,
Hecto, Kilo, Myria and deci, centi, milli, with a support, plate or slide carrying the
movable ciphers or numerals for writing all numbers.
In the drawing abcd indicate the vertical grooves for the movable ciphers to
slide in. The ciphers shown under the tens are movable..
The free part serves as a small black board..
The abacus may be modified so as to le specially suitable for English weights
and measures.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
The improved construction or design of abacus, substantially as described and
illustrated.