JF Ptak Science Books: 19th Century Smart Sticks: Calculating Pencils

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19th Century Smart Sticks: Calculating Pencils

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

This thinking stick comes to us via the courtesy of the Scientific American Supplement (19 August 1876, page 542), and shows a lovely Victorian non-SteamPunk answer to on-the-run calculation. It is an almost-elegant device, and seems as though it should work just fine. Its utility as a writing instrument seems a bit limited, as seems the calculator part, but the whole of it seems to be full of possibility--and a very nice piece of dedicated thinking.

[Text describing the invention below.]