Book, The Plain Calculator Being an Elementary Arithmetic Based on the Inherent Properties of Numbers
date: label: Date made
content: 1842
name: label: maker
content: Manly, Orr, & Lippincott
label: author
content: Joerres, Lewis
notes: label: Description
content: Lewis Joerres called himself a Prussian professor of mathematics, who traveled the United States to study its educational systems and felt led to call attention to mathematics by preparing this textbook. The Plain Calculator was published by the Philadelphia bookselling firm of Manly, Orr, & Lippincott in 1842. Since J. B. Lippincott was known for making his assistants into partners, this firm might have been associated with his prestigious schoolbook publishing house. A heavily damaged advertisement for Manly, Orr, & Lippincott appears on the back cover of this copy. The Plain Calculator consists of lengthy expositions of mathematical rules followed by a few questions for exercise, a style that was outdated by 1842. Joerres defined arithmetic as the "science of calculation" that ascertains perfect and imperfect quantities. The topics in his book included conversions of currency, problems of gain and loss, and alligation. Although "alligation," or a technique for combining mixed quantities, did not appear in most other arithmetic textbooks of the time period, Joerres referred readers to Enoch Lewis's The Arithmetical Expositor (2 vol., Philadelphia, 1824) and Frederick Emerson's North American Arithmetic(pp. 84, 101). After page 94, there are several lengthy word problems with the solutions worked out in entirety. The second part of the textbook covers factors, or "tokens." There is a table of factors up to 9997 as well as a multiplication table up to 12 X 12. "May Book" is written inside the front cover of this copy, there are numerous pencil marks over the dashes and parentheses throughout the text, and the numerals 1 through 7 are penciled on page 49.
label: Description
content: See also 1982.3001.01.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Education
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Arthur Skebeck
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.3001.03
label: catalog number
content: 1982.3001.03
label: nonaccession number
content: 1982.3001
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Book
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 1.4 cm x 10.5 cm x 16 cm; 9/16 in x 4 1/8 in x 6 5/16 in