Small Abacus purchased in Dezful Bazaar, Iran
Suanpan Abacus Paperweight
Lotus Flower Suanpan modified for the addition of Yards, Feet, Inches, Eighths, Thirty-Secondths and One Hundred and Twenty-Eighths, made in China, modified in Britain
Lotus Flower Suanpan modified for the addition of Days, Hours, Minutes and Seconds, made in China, modified in Britain
Lotus Flower Suanpan modified for the addition of Degrees, Minutes, Seconds and Decimal Fractions of a Second, made in China, modified in Britain
Lotus Flower Suanpan modified for the addition of Long Tons, Hundredweights, Stones, Pounds,Ounces and Drachms. Ounces and Drachms are base 16 and the remaining four rods after this are for base 16 arithmetic, made in China, modified in Britain
Lotus Flower Suanpan with 11 Rods made in The People's Republic of China
Suanpan with 13 Rods. An abacus similar to this can be seen on the desk of Lt.Col Henry Blake in MASH. A good view can be seen in Series 2, Episode 21, entitled Crisis.
Suanpan with 9 Rods packaged with Jesse Dilson's book entitled "Abacus"
Red Lion Suanpan with 11 Rods made in China
Decorative Suanpan
Functional Child's Suanpan, Made in China by the Galaxy Stationery Co, Ltd.
Soroban with 21 Rods
Narasaki Soroban 27 Rods
Sharp Elsimate EL-428
Sharp Elsimate EL-8048
Soroban with reset button 13 Rods
Soroban 9 Rods
Soroban 11 Rods
Soroban 17 Rods
Cranmer Abacus for the Blind. The felt surface underneath the beads prevents them from moving accidentally.
Soroban Style Abacus made using K'Nex
Roman Abacus made using K'Nex. The rods are labelled at the top from the left, XMM = 10 million, MM = 1 million, CM = 100,000, XM = 10,000, M = 1,000, C = 100, X = 10 and I = units, used for decimal calculation in the manner of a soroban. The rod labelled theta counts 12 Uncia which is 1/12th of a Roman foot. The remaining three symbols are still subject to debate but are most likely, from top to bottom, the Semuncia = 1/24 or half an Uncia, the Sicilicus = 1/48 or half a Semuncia and the Sextula = 1/72 or one sixth of an Uncia. This all fits with the soroban style operation of this abacus except for the Sextilus rod, labelled 2. I therefore propose a more logical option which fits with the overall soroban style that each bead on this final column represents 1/144th of an Uncia, the Dimidia Uncia. In this case three Dimidia Uncia equals one Sicilicus, two Sicilici equal one Semuncia and two Semuncia equals one Uncia. In this way the abacus becomes self consistent.
Duplex Abacus, Decimal on one side and Binary on the other. The Binary Abacus shows the sum 101(5) Times 1101(13) equals 1000001(65) made using K'Nex
Pocket Decimal Abacus with 7 rods made using K'Nex
Japanese Soroban with five beads on Earth and one in Heaven, of a type superceded in the 1930's by those with four beads on Earth and one in Heaven shown above
Soroban with five beads on Earth, one in Heaven and 27 Rows.
Childs Abacus in a pencil box. The dividers on the upper abacus have been added by me to allow temporary modification for different bases
Pencil Box Abacus.
Abacus Style Calendar showing November 3rd 2010
Schioty with a quarter Rouble Rod, the line of four beads four rows from the bottom and a rod at the bottom for counting the Den'gi (1/2 Copeck) and the Polushka (1/4 Copeck). The Rouble is the currency of Russia with one Rouble equal to 100 Copecks
Schioty, 17cm x 11cm. Donated by Alla Shuvalova, Novocheboksarsk, Russia
Schioty
Schioty
Small but Colourful Schioty from Lithuania.
Decimal Schioty
Child's Schioty
This Abacus was obtained from Hong kong. It is very similar in design to the decimal schioty but with nine beads to a line instead of ten. It does for the Schioty that which the Soroban does for the Suanpan.
Homemade Table Abacus based on the Exchequer Table in Strasbourg Museum. The sum is VII(7) Times DCXXXII(632) Equals MMMMCCCCXXIIII(4424) or MMMMCDXXIV
