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Ready Reckoner
A ready reckoner is a printed book or table containing pre-calculated values, often multiples of given amounts. They were widely used in shops and by tradesmen before the advent of cheap electronic calculators, metric weights and measures and decimal currencies in the 1970s. Background Prior to the 1960s and the widespread introduction of calculators, multiplication was a laborious chore, often prone to error. This was especially so when calculations involved non-decimal currencies. Various devices were invented to aid this process, such as the abacus, log tables, slide rule, stepped reckoner, or the comptometer, but the most commonly used device for everyday commerce was the ready reckoner. These could be either general-purpose – aimed to meet the needs of a variety of trades – or designed specifically for one trade or group of trades. History The earliest surviving ready reckoner in English dates from the 1570s; other sources attribute the invention to the Dutch ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ready-Reckoner
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the Most common words in English, most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comptometer
The Comptometer was the first commercially successful key-driven mechanical calculator, patented in the United States by Dorr Felt in 1887. A key-driven calculator is extremely fast because each key adds or subtracts its value to the accumulator as soon as it is pressed and a skilled operator can enter all of the digits of a number simultaneously, using as many fingers as required, making them sometimes faster to use than electronic calculators. Consequently, in specialized applications, comptometers remained in use in limited numbers into the early 1990s, but with the exception of museum pieces, they have all now been superseded by electronic calculators and computers. Manufactured without interruption from 1887 to the mid-1970s, it was constantly improved. The mechanical versions were made faster and more reliable, then a line of electro-mechanical models was added in the 1930s. It was the first mechanical calculator to receive an all-electronic calculator engine in 1961, with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weights And Measures Acts (UK)
Weights and measures acts are acts of the British Parliament determining the regulation of weights and measures. It also refers to similar royal and parliamentary acts of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and the medieval Welsh states. The earliest of these were originally untitled but were given descriptive glosses or titles based upon the monarch under whose reign they were promulgated. Several omnibus modern acts are entitled the Weights and Measures Act and are distinguished by the year of their enactment. Background There have been many laws concerned with weights and measures in the United Kingdom or parts of it over the last 1,000 or so years. The acts may catalogue lawful weights and measures, prescribe the mechanism for inspection and enforcement of the use of such weights and measures and may set out circumstances under which they may be amended. Modern legislation may, in addition to specific requirements, set out circumstances under which the incumbent mini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Units
The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units (also known as British Imperial or Exchequer Standards of 1826) is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed through a series of Weights and Measures Acts and amendments. The imperial system developed from earlier English units as did the related but differing system of customary units of the United States. The imperial units replaced the Winchester Standards, which were in effect from 1588 to 1825. The system came into official use across the British Empire in 1826. By the late 20th century, most nations of the former empire had officially adopted the metric system as their main system of measurement, but imperial units are still used alongside metric units in the United Kingdom and in some other parts of the former empire, notably Canada. The modern UK legislation defining the imperial system of units is given in the Weights and Measures Act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germantown, Philadelphia
Germantown (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Deitscheschteddel'') is an area in Northwest Philadelphia. Founded by German, Quaker, and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854. The area, which is about six miles northwest from the city center, now consists of two neighborhoods: 'Germantown' and 'East Germantown'. Germantown has played a significant role in American history; it was the birthplace of the American antislavery movement, the site of a Revolutionary War battle, the temporary residence of George Washington, the location of the first bank of the United States, and the residence of many notable politicians, scholars, artists, and social activists. Today the area remains rich in historic sites and buildings from the colonial era, some of which are open to the public. Boundaries Germantown stretches for about two miles along Germantown Avenue northwest from Windrim and Roberts Avenues. Germantown has been consistently bounded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut [Massachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət],'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Maine to the east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York (state), New York to the west. The state's capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city, as well as its cultural and financial center, is Boston. Massachusetts is also home to the urban area, urban core of Greater Boston, the largest metropolitan area in New England and a region profoundly influential upon American History of the United States, history, academia, and the Economy of the United States, research economy. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing, and trade. Massachusetts was transformed into a manuf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most populous city in the country. The city boundaries encompass an area of about and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. It is the seat of Suffolk County (although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999). The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest MSA in the country. A broader combined statistical area (CSA), generally corresponding to the commuting area and including Providence, Rhode Island, is home to approximately 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States. Boston is one of the oldest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Leybourn
William Leybourn (16261716) was an English mathematician and land surveyor, author, printer and bookseller. Career as a printer During the late 1640s Robert Leybourn's press in Monkswell Street near Cripplegate, London was occupied with books and pamphlets of a political, martial and millenarian nature. He printed John Arrowsmith's sermon to the houses of parliament, ''England's Eben-ezer'' in 1645, and his ''Great Wonder in Heaven'' in 1647. In 1646 he published a pamphlet ''A Defence of Master Chaloner's Speech'', and an early edition of ''The Marrow of Modern Divinity'' attributed to Edward Fisher: in 1648 appeared ''The Differences in Scotland stil on foot'', and from 1648 an almanack or ''Moderate Intelligencer'' of military affairs entitled ''Mercurius Republicus''. Robert Leybourn gave the apparently fraudulent ascription to Sir William Davenant of Edmund Bolton's historical poem ''London, King Charles his Augusta, or City Royal'' of 1648. He printed Joseph Mede's sermo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Stevin
Simon Stevin (; 1548–1620), sometimes called Stevinus, was a Flemish mathematician, scientist and music theorist. He made various contributions in many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical. He also translated various mathematical terms into Dutch, making it one of the few European languages in which the word for mathematics, '' wiskunde'' ('' wis'' and '' kunde'', i.e., "the knowledge of what is certain"), was not a loanword from Greek but a calque via Latin. He also replaced the word '' chemie'', the Dutch for chemistry, by '' scheikunde'' ("the art of separating"), made in analogy with ''wikt:en:wiskunde#Dutch, wiskunde''. Biography Very little is known with certainty about Simon Stevin's life, and what we know is mostly inferred from other recorded facts.E. J. Dijksterhuis (1970) ''Simon Stevin: Science in the Netherlands around 1600'', The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dutch original 1943, 's-Gravenhage The exact birth date and the date ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calculators
An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized devices became available in the 1970s, especially after the Intel 4004, the first microprocessor, was developed by Intel for the Japanese calculator company Busicom. Modern electronic calculators vary from cheap, give-away, credit-card-sized models to sturdy desktop models with built-in printers. They became popular in the mid-1970s as the incorporation of integrated circuits reduced their size and cost. By the end of that decade, prices had dropped to the point where a basic calculator was affordable to most and they became common in schools. Computer operating systems as far back as early Unix have included interactive calculator programs such as dc and hoc, and interactive BASIC could be used to do calculations on most 1970s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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