Chinese ABACUS, or SHWANPAN, like the Grecian, consists of several series of beads strung on brass wires, stretched from the top to the bottom of the instrument, and divided in the middle by a cross piece from side to side. In the upper space every string has two beads, which are each counted for 5; and in the lower space every string has five beads, of different values, the first being counted as 1, the second as 10, the third as 100, and so on, as with us.
Chinese ABACUS
sub_entry · 462 chars · lineage ↗ · page image at NLS ↗