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Today, 05 July 2009

Yesterday, 04 July 2009

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by Luke Tagg

We think of the abacus as an Oriental calculator. Actually, many claim it was invented by the Romans and was in common use in Europe until the opening of the seventeenth century.

The abacus of today is called the "rod abacus" and operates by moving beads along narrow rods. The first abacus developed by the ancient Romans was merely a small sandbox. The sandbox had no beads or rods; markings were made in the sand with a finger, and after the calculation was completed the markings were erased with the finger.

The second abacus the Romans developed is called the "lined abacus." It was simply a board with lines drawn on it. Calculating was done by placing little discs, as needed, on top of the lines and moving them about. Ancient Rome's next, and final advance in the development of the abacus was the "grooved abacus." As the name suggests, small grooves were carved into the board. Balls were put in the grooves and moved in such a way as to make calculations.

It was the grooved abacus which found its way from Rome to China by the time of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.- A.D. 220). This happened by way of two silk roads which connected these great empires and allowed for a lively commerce. But it wasn't until the great rise in prosperity of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1636) that the rod abacus was developed and came into common use in China. Incorporating the rod was the first, and final, ingenious development of the abacus in China. Still used today, it has two beads above a beam and 5 beads below, and a rod running through each row of seven beads.

Although it may have been introduced to Japan earlier, it is known that during the seventh century Japanese students were studying in the then Chinese capital of Chang-an, now called Si-an, and came into contact with the abacus. From that period to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the year Japan awakened before the world, the Chinese abacus was used in Japan.

From the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese began using a modified Chinese abacus. This modified abacus, commonly called the "older Japanese-style abacus," had one bead above the beam and five below. Since 1940 the older-style Japanese abacus has been replaced in favor of the modern Japanese abacus. The modern Japanese abacus has one bead above the beam and only four below, and is the abacus in common use in Japan today.

A Roman abacus

It was Arabic numerals that doomed the Roman abacus. Roman numerals were unwieldy for making long-hand calculations. Imagine trying to multiply the following: MDCCLXVII (TIMES) LVI. The Roman abacus got around this difficulty.

But the introduction of the Arabic numerals made long-hand calculations easy, (1767 X 556). Now we can understand why the Roman abacus went the way of the dinosaur, and the rod abacus remains popular in China, Japan, and elsewhere in Asia.

Chinese/Japanese characters are as unwieldy as the Roman numerals were, yet many Asian countries have not forgiven these characters in favor of Arabic numerals. Thus, the abacus of China and Japan remains alive and well.