Accession No

1893

Brief Description

napier’s bones, cylindrical form, rolling rods, by John England, English, 1703 - 1708

Origin

England; London; Charing Cross

Maker

England, John

Class

mathematics; calculating

Earliest Date

1703

Latest Date

1708

Inscription Date

Material

wood (boxwood); metal (brass)

Dimensions

length 112mm; breadth 82mm; height 28mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Arthur Davidson Ltd., 179 New Bond Street, London, England in 06/06/1974. Purchased with the assistance of a Science Museum PRISM grant-in-aid.

Inscription

‘IOHN ENGLAND FECIT’

Description Notes

Box of cylindrical form napier’s rods with hinged lid (brass hinges). The outside of the hinged lid with linear border decoration. Inside the lid is a Pythagorean multiplication table with capacity of 20 x 16. Inside the box are 6 cylinders operated from the front face of the box by turned and carved handles. Each cylinder is calibrated with the multiplication table of 1 - 9 for the multiplicands 0 - 9 and reads from top to bottom. Final ‘x 10’ is marked ‘*’. At the right hand side is laminar marked ‘C S R’ calibrated for cubes and squares with multiplicand 1 - 9. Beneath this laminar a fixed strip marked ‘S R’ for squares, doubles and the multiplicand 1 - 9. Cover strips obscure all but one column of each cylinder.

Condition good (chip on one side of lid); 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
The invention of Napier’s bones in 1617 marked a major development in the field of computational methods. John Napier, a Scottish mathematician and the discoverer of logarithms, designed a system of rods or ‘bones’ engraved with a multiplication table. The tool made multiplying and dividing numbers easy by rendering the calculations into simple additional and subtraction.

Rolling rods are a variation on Napier’s bones, working on the same principle, but enclosed within a case, rather than with loose rods. This particular set, created between 1703 and 1708, was made by John England.

09/08/2024
Created by: Clare Rogowski on 09/08/2024

Description
Rolling rods are a variation on Napiers bones, they work on exactly the same principle, not loose, and are usually cased.

In 1617 John Napier invented the calculating aid Napiers bones. These were first described in his book Numeration by Little Rods in 1617. Each of the 10 rods or ‘bones’ in a set are engraved with a multiplication table. This simple device made multiplying and dividing large numbers very easy by transforming the calculations into simple addition and subtraction. The rods became extremely popular and spread across Europe lasting well into the 20th century where they were still used in primary schools in the 1960’s.

FM:39539