Promptuary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The promptuary was a calculating machine invented by the 16th-century Scottish mathematician John Napier and described in the second edition of his book Rabdologiae in which he also described Napier's bones. It performed multidigit multiplication by means of a system of metal plates, inscribed with numbers, that were placed inside a box and turned according to Napier's instructions.[1]
References
| Computing devices in |
| Rabdology |
|---|
| Napier's bones |
| Promptuary |
| Location arithmetic |
- ↑ Bradley, Michael John (2006), The Age of Genius: 1300 to 1800, Infobase Publishing, p. 36, ISBN 978-0-8160-5424-4.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.