Mathematics
On Display
Gunner's quadrant and perpendicular by George Adams the Younger, c.1780. This instrument was designed primarily to ensure that a cannon or mortar was elevated to the required angle. Quadrants were also used for navigational purposes to determine the
Model to show face-centre cubic packing made of ping-pong balls.1975. This model imitates a stuctural form found in crystals.
A pattern drawn using a Spirograph, a popular graphic toy used to draw combinations of curves.
Set of mathematical instruments made by D Lusuerg of Rome, 1701. The range of this set of instruments is unusually extensive, from ordinary dividers to a geometric quadrant. It also includes a circle of degrees with pointers in the shape of grotesq
Brass sector (Gunter's pattern) by Elias Allen 1623. Allen made the sector to the design of Edmund Gunter who published a description of it in the same year. Sectors were used from the end of the 16th century until the mid 19th for calculations invol
Cordingley computometer adding machine c.1900. The Cordingley adding machine was one of several simple devices introduced around 1900. It is based on Blaise Pascal's (1623-1662) design of 250 years earlier.
Exactus stylus-operated adding and subtracting device, with swivelling half plate for add and subtract options, marked "Mini-Add Made in England", c. 1950. The Exactus is one of several simple stylus-operated calculators to have been popular in the
Mechanical ready reckoner patented by Patented by James Hines. This form of calculator gave costs of various quantities of goods at various prices per pound, hundredweight or ton. The quantity was set by turning the apropriate wheel at the side, and
Laundry tally board, English, of wood, brass and horn
Magic Brain' calculator made by Chadwick in tin and plastic, with stylus and instructions. C.1955. Very similar to the Exaxctus and other stylus calculators of the period, the Magic Brain could add, subtact, and multiply and duivide by repeated addit