The reckoning board, also called a memory board or hole board, could be used on its own as a basic counting device or used with an
abacus
The abacus (''plural'' abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool which has been used since ancient times. It was used in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the Hi ...
for engineering.
There were two types of reckoning board. The older type was a simple 10 × 10 grid of holes. A peg would be inserted into a hole and moved along, starting from the top and working downwards. It was used as a memory aid when counting certain units. For every sack of grain or bar of steel, the peg would be moved forward and after a day or a week, the total number counted could be seen.
The more advanced type had columns of holes, with the columns indicating place value.
See also
*
Cribbage board
*
Sand table
A sand table uses constrained sand for modelling or educational purposes. The original version of a sand table may be the abax used by early Greek students. In the modern era, one common use for a sand table is to make terrain models for milit ...
References
* Alex Grandell, "The Accounting Historians Journal" Spring 1977.
* {{Cite book , publisher = Springer , isbn = 978-0-7923-3816-1 , last = Damerow , first = Peter , title = Abstraction and representation: essays on the cultural evolution of thinking , year = 1996
Mechanical calculators