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John W. Nystrom (Swedish: Johan Vilhelm Nyström) (1825-1885) was a Swedish-American engineer, who lived in Philadelphia, United States.

Nystrom received many patents for inventions such as a marine steam engine, a refrigerator, and calculating machines. His "slide ruler patent" N° 7961 obtained on March 4, 1851 was one of the first US patents. Nystrom also proposed switching from base 10 to base 16.

[edit] Tonal System (Hexadecimal)

In 1859, Nystrom proposed a hexadecimal (base 16) system of notation, arithmetic, and metrology called the Tonal System. In addition to new weights and measures, his proposal included a new calendar with sixteen months, a new system of coinage, and a hexadecimal clock with sixteen hours in a day.

He proposed Esperanto-like names for the hexadecimal digits, calling zero "noll" and counting (from one to sixteen):

"An,  de,  ti,  go,  su,  by,  ra,  me,  ni,  ko,  hu,  vy,  la,  po,  fy,  ton." (Therefore tonal system.)

The numbers 11₁₆ and 12₁₆ would be said "tonan", "tonde", etc. The table below shows Nystrom's names for successive powers of 10₁₆.

Base 16 Number	Tonal Name	Base 10 Equivalent
10	ton	16
100	san	256
1000	mill	4,096
1,0000	bong	65,536
10,0000	tonbong	1,048,576
100,0000	sanbong	16,777,216
1000,0000	millbong	268,435,456
1,0000,0000	tam	4,294,967,296

Thus, the hexadecimal number 1510,0000 would be "mill-susanton-bong".

This first hexadecimal system, proposed in the 19th century, had no success at all.

[edit] External links

• Nystrom, John W. Project of a New System of Arithmetic, Weight, Measure and Coins, Proposed to be Called the Tonal System, with Sixteen to the Base. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1862 (at Google Books)
• Nystrom's Articles: On a new system of arithmetic and metrology, called the tonal system -Part 1,Part 2,Part 3
• His slide ruler patent, 1851.