Re: Anti folklore (the truth)

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#1231

From: b... Brad Sherman
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 1990 21:19

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In article <1990Feb7.2...@brutus.cs.uiuc.edu> zw...@cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>I think any chronology of "computing hardware" that includes anything as
> ...
>basically a table with a grid drawn on it and pebbles for counters which
> ...
If not mistaken, calculus is from the latin for small stone.  Stones having
been used for early computing as indicated above.  I seem to remember
reading that the analogue of taxi-cabs in ancient Rome used a geared
mechanism which dropped a stone into a hopper for every N revolutions of
the wheels of the vehicle (chariot?).  One paid at the end of the trip
according to the count of the stones.  (OK, I won't ask for first- or
second-hand sources for this one.)
--
	Brad Sherman (b...@alfa.berkeley.edu)

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From: b...@alfa.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Anti folklore (the truth)
Message-ID: <1990Feb7.211955.25395@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 7 Feb 90 21:19:55 GMT
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