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
An abacus ( abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, until the adoption of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. A ...
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
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Counting board
The counting board is the precursor of the abacus, and the earliest known form of a counting device (excluding fingers and other very simple methods). Counting boards were made of stone or wood, and the counting was done on the board with beads, ...
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Cribbage board
Cribbage, or crib, is a card game, traditionally for two players, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. It can be adapted for three or four players.
Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbage ...
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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 mi ...
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