Object Details
- Description
- This instrument sits in a rosewood box with rosewood cross piece. Fifteen parallel bamboo rods pass through the cross piece. Each rod has two wooden beads above and five below the cross piece. The beads are rounded, like those on other Chinese abaci. Brass corner pieces hold the box together.
- Frank A.Taylor, a staff member in the Department of Arts and Industries at the United States National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, first lent the abacus to the National Collections in 1928 for use in a display of calculating instruments. He lent the object as an example of a modern Chinese abacus. He donated it in 1960.There is no mark by a maker.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Frank A. Taylor
- ca 1925
- ID Number
- MA.309527
- catalog number
- 309527
- accession number
- 104133
- Object Name
- abacus
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- rosewood (overall material)
- bamboo (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 2.7 cm x 37 cm x 17 cm; 1 1/16 in x 14 9/16 in x 6 11/16 in
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Abacus
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_690528
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-1796-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
