Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An instrument for performing multiplication and division. The multiplicand is made to appear in one place by setting certain stops or wheels. A handle is then turned, and other motions are made, so as to cause the multiplier to appear in another place. Then the product will be found in a third place. Division and subtraction can be performed in a somewhat similar way. The best-known of these machines is by Thomas of Colmar; the best is by Grant.
Wiktionary
- n. dated A calculating machine.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A calculating machine.
Etymologies
- Ancient Greek (Wiktionary)
Examples
“We have also added a machine known as the arithmometer and two typewriters to our clerical department.”
“The differences [Delta] D and [Delta] I are thus calculated, while the values of D (v) and I (v) are obtained by summation with the arithmometer, and entered in their respective columns.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy"
“On the way in which this is done, however, depends to a great extent the durability and trustworthiness of any arithmometer; in fact, it is often its weakest point.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary"
“Check out this Russian model of arithmometer, ominously named "Felix" (after Felix Dzerzhiski, founder of Soviet KGB) It was based on 1914 St. Petersburg's Odner-Hill company device, shown on the bottom, click on image for more -”
“Generally an arithmometer with multiple cogs and stepped drum mechanism, there is however a lot to disassemble.”
“n. obsession with numbers, especially compulsion to count things. arithmometer, armiferous adj. - carrying weapons or arms. adj. - like, pertaining to or composed of rings. armillary sphere, celestial globe composed only of rings marking equator, tropics, etc.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘arithmometer’.
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Public List: Calculating Devices
Some interesting pre-electronic number crunchers.
difference engine, lebombo bone, ishango bone, abacus, antikythera mecha..., napier's bones, calculating clock, pascaline, stepped reckoner, jacquard loom, arithmometer, arithmetique and 11 more...
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bertilak's Words
antidisestablishm..., feldercarb, wainscoting, eleemosynary, oxymoron, fuliginous, libration, lammergeier, saxifrage, ichor, lambent, smaragdine and 414 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for arithmometer.
skipvia 1820, France. It sounds like a device from a Philip Pullman novel, but it was the first commercially successful mechanical calculator. Thomas de Colmar used the Leibniz Wheel to produce a machine that could add, subtract, multiply and divide. It was in popular use for one hundred years. See Calculating Devices. Jan 26, 2008