Re:Napier's bones" were sticks on which numbers were written such positions such that the sticks, manipulated properly, would solve multiplication problems. (think "slide rule")


the example i saw of Napiers Bones (first made on a irory--giving rise to the name of bones) looked more like an old fashioned adding machine. you had to position a crank, (say to the 10's column)and then crank it 8 times to multiply by 80. Oops.. first you had to enter a number say 743,in the starting postion, or regiser, to be multilpied by 87.. then you postioned the crank and rotated it 8 times, repostitioned it (to the ones' column) and cranked it 4 more times. Voila the number in the register was not 743-- your starting number but 62412.

i still remember when stores had mechical adding machines that need to be cranked X number of times to add or multily a number.

and while napiers bones did lead to the slide rule, there is no physical resemblance.


my other obsession