ED077712

Numbers and Numerals
The use of knots to designate numbers is found in Germany in
connection with the number of measures of grain in a sack Menfinger
shows the shapes of the knots and their numerical meaning
as follows:
11
In recent times machines have been invented in Europe and
America by which we can perform all the operations with numbers
far more rapidly than is possible with the abacus or with
pencil and paper. You have often seen the cash register used in
stores, and this adds very quickly and accurately. You may also
have seen machines for making change, in which, for example,
you place a dollar bill to pay for something that costs 37 cents.
The salesman simply pushes a button marked Si and another
one or two to represent 37.x`, and the change (630 comes out.
The time will come when high schools giving commercial
courses not only will have classes in stenography and typewriting,
but will give instruction in the use of business machines of various
kinds, including calculators. The simplest types of calculators
merely give results in addition and subtraction. Others list numbers,
add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Bookkeepers no longer
need to figure percentages; machines do this work more rapidly
than any person can, and with less risk of errors. Many types of
thew calculators can be operated by electricity, and some are so
small that they can be easily carried about by hand.*
Calculating machines or many kinds are described in as excellent work
by Perley Morse, Business Machines, Longmans, Green and Co., 1932.