Unpublished paper, 'Description of a calculating machine, invented by Mr Thomas Fowler, of Torrington in Devonshire [England]' by Augustus de Morgan

Description

De Morgan describes how Fowler was employed to find a way to distribute a given amount of money across parishes within Devonshire. He details the binary system used by Fowler to complete this task, and the 'multiplier' or calculating machine invented by Fowler, which consists of a moveable frame with rods on it, perhaps similar to an abacus.

Subject: Mathematics / Arithmetic

Received 18 June 1840. Communicated by Francis Baily.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 4 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'Description of a calculating machine invented by Mr. Thomas Fowler, of Torrington in Devonshire'.

Reference number

AP/23/24

Earliest possible date

June 1840

Physical description

Ink on paper

Page extent

4 pages

Format

Manuscript