B chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute - University of Minnesota

with fractions rather than integers. The latter sections
contain a discussion of elementary algebra, and the final
quarter of the book is devoted to tables dealing with
money and similar practical matters.
138
Illustrations available:
Title page (color)
Frontispiece
Roman numerals
Multiplication table
Handwritten gelosia multiplication
Erwin Tomash Library
Beutel, Tobias Bevan, Benjamin
B 145
Frontispiece, B 145
B 146
Bevan, Benjamin (fl.1804–1838)
A practical treatise on the sliding rule. In two parts.
Part the first being an introduction to the use of the rule
generally as adapted for calculations that usually occur
to persons in trade. Part the second containing formulæ
for the use of surveyors, architects, civil engineers, and
scientific gentlemen.
Year: 1822
Place: London
Publisher: Author
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Binding: original paper boards
Pagination: pp. 101, [7]
Collation: A–F 4 G 2 H–O 4
Size: 227x138 mm
Reference: Tay MP II, #1084
Roman numeral forms, B 145
Multiplication table, B 145
Benjamin Bevan was an engineer and architect/surveyor
who lived in Bushey Heath, England. Little is known
about him, but he notes in the preface that he had spent
eighteen years in very extensive public undertakings and
had taught the use of the slide rule to a number of young
persons. He developed his new slide rule, with divisions
to three places of decimal, some time about 1813. He
was obviously well connected because he was able to use
Jesse Ramsden’s dividing machine for the markings. The
rule was manufactured, beginning about the time of this
publication, by William O. Carey (1789–1891), whose
shop was on the Strand in London. Carey advertised the
rule as being for accountants and surveyors.