IMPROVED APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR CERTAIN SCIENTIFIC AND NUMERICAL OPERATIONS, AND FOR INTEGRATING AND DEFINING THE RESULTS."
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Gray Lawrie and
David George Hoey at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th
September 1879.
JAMES GRAY LAWRIE, of Kelvenside, Shipbuilder, and DAVID GEORGE HOEY, of
Glasgow, Public Accountant, both in the County of Lanark, North Britain.
IMPROVED APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR CERTAIN SCIENTIFIC AND NUMERICAL
OPERATIONS, AND FOR INTEGRATING AND DEFINING THE RESULTS."
The operations referred to may be performed on any surface, but it is preferred
that they be performed on tables, boards, sheets of card board, or paper, the
surface in each case being either flat or spherical. For different forms of operations
1
different modifications of the apparatus are necessary.
The following is the apparatus and the operation adapted more particularly for
large surfaces :—
We have one hundred standards, figures, and numerals, which we call (A)
standards, and we have twenty standards, figures, or numerals, which we call (B)
standards. We give to each a distinctive name, and when we hereinafter use the
word "standard" we mean standard, figure, or numeral. We place these standards
as shown in the Drawing hereto appended, that is to say, there are ten columns of
(A) standards, each of which columns contains ten, and opposite each column there
is a (B) standard, as shewn on the sketch, on two sides of the figure in which the
(A) standards are ranged. There is a connection betwixt each (B) standard and
the column of (A) standards opposite, so contrived that if the (B) standard is dis-
placed or removed from the operation the column of (A) standards opposite is either
in whole or in part, as may be arranged, simultaneously removed, and the (A)
standards cannot be removed unless the (B) standard is removed. In front of each
(B) standard there is a hollow or indentation in the surface upon which the operation
is performed, or a projection above that surface with projecting stations, as shewn
in the Drawing. The operators, of whom there are twenty, each taking the name
of one of the (B) standards, operate singly or in couples, one of whom adopts the
name of a (B) standard in one of the lines of (B) standards, and the other adopts
the name of a (B) standard in the other line of (B) standards. The operation in
this illustration is performed by projecting on the surface in a direction forming an
angle with the line of (A) standards, by hand or by an instrument of propulsion,
balls eccentrically formed and loaded, aimed to remove every (B) standard but the

page_text: one having the name adopted by the operator, and when all the (B) standards
having relative (A) standards are removed, except one, from one of the lines of (B)
standards the operation proceeds upon the (B) standards in the other line, and when
all the (B) standards having relative (A) standards are removed from this line of (B)
standards, except one, the (A) standards of that one constitute the integral of the
operation and the resultant.
In this illustration we have used one hundred (A) standards and twenty (B)
standards, but the number of each may be much less, or may be much greater.
Each (A) standard and each (B) standard in the sketch may represent a group of
(A) standards and a group of (B) standards.
In the sketch there are (B) standards on only two sides of the square of (A) standards,
but in other forms of the apparatus there are (B) standards on all the four sides,
and when the figures in which the (A) standards are ranged is a polygon there are
(B) standards on as many of the sides as desired, or on all the sides, and these
several lines of (B) standards are used consecutively in the manner already explained
for two lines. The connection betwixt the (B) standards and the (A) standards
may be in a direct line, as shewn in the sketch, or turned in a diagonal line, or in
zig zag direction, as may be desired.
Instead of the standards, figures, or numerals being removed by propulsion, as
herein described, they are or may be removed by the action of gravity, magnetism,
or other agent or equivalent.
The apparatus is not limited to the apparatus described for representing, placing,
or removing the standards, figures, or numerals herein described, as the equivalent
of any of them may be substituted to suit the operation without departing from the
essential nature of, the Invention, which is a means or mode of obtaining easy and
rapid integration and accurate ascertainment of resultants dependent on the arrange-
ment of large numbers of units in certain scientific and numerical operations. Part
of the apparatus and part of the operation already explained can be applied and
used as a game.