Rotating Multiplication Table
date: label: date made
content: 1814
notes: label: Description
content: This device is a rotating multiplication table, probably intended as a currency converter.
label: Description
content: The wooden box contains a cylinder that is rotated by turning a metal wheel on the left side. A lid at the front of the box opens to reveal a paper strip with a horizontal row of numbers pasted to the box, a window below that shows a row of numbers on a paper pasted to the cylinder, and a paper strip with three horizontal rows of numbers pasted to the box below the window. The leftmost number on the cylinder increases as it is turned from 1 to 30. Numbers on the row of numbers above this window increase from 2 to 11, including intermittent values such as 2/3, 2/6, and 2/9.
label: Description
content: Supposing that these numbers are in feet and inches, the product shown on the cylinder is given in fathoms [1 fathom = 6 feet = 72 inches]. Supposing that these numbers are in Massachusetts shillings and pence (6 shilling = $1 in 1818), the tables give the dollar and cents equivalents of multiples of Massachusetts currency.
label: Description
content: The three rows of numbers below the window are labeled 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4. They give fractional values of the numbers in the top row, in the converted units (e.g. if the numbers in the top row represent shillings, they give values of fractions of that number of shillings, in cents).
label: Description
content: The device is marked faintly in pencil on the bottom. This mark reads in part: May 1814.
label: Description
content: According to the Ethnology catalog card, this object is American. It came with a large collection of Americana, particularly with school apparatus from New England.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.328416.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Zacariah Jess, <I>The American Tutor’s Assistant</I>, Philadelphia, 1818, p. 18.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Mathematical Charts and Tables
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Arthur M. Greenwood
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.389100
label: catalog number
content: 389100
label: accession number
content: 182022
objectType: label: Object Name
content: mathematical table
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 cm x 43 cm x 13 cm; 3 17/32 in x 16 15/16 in x 5 1/8 in