Accession No
1658
Brief Description
Suanpan abacus, Japanese
Origin
Japan
Maker
Class
mathematics; calculating
Earliest Date
Latest Date
Inscription Date
Material
wood (at least four types)
Dimensions
length 541mm; breadth 129mm; height 64mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased H. Wynter, 352 King’s Road, Chelsea, London, England, in 03/1974.
Inscription
Description Notes
Suanpan (aka Suan Pan) abacus, Japanese.
Wooden abacus with 27 rods, each with 5 shaped beads below division and 2 above. Division bar marked with characters for each rod. Wooden sliding plate underneath rods, one side painted red, the other black with characters. Three bracing bars under plate and two above.
Wooden box with inscription on lid.
Condition good (one rod broken); complete
References
Mikey McGovern; 'A brief history of calculating devices'; Explore Whipple Collections online article; Whipple Museum of the History of Science; University of Cambridge: https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/calculating-devices/brief-history-calculating-devices
Events
Description
Abacus
The abacus was used for calculations too complicated to be done in the head, as a quicker alternative to using a pencil and paper. The word abacus comes from the Greek word for flat surface and originally it was simply a surface for putting pebbles on. However, many different types have developed and many involve beads running along wires or grooves. All use the principle of different columns of counters representing different units or collections of units e.g. one column for hundreds, one for tens, one for units etc.
The abacus can be thought of as an early predecessor of today’s digital computers.
20/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson on 20/10/2002
FM:39538
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