Page:Smith - Number Stories of Long ago (1919).djvu/77

NUMBER STORIES It was more than a thousand years after Wu learned to add with the bamboo rods that the Chinese adopted the old Roman idea of having the calculi fastened to an abacus, and so they invented their reckoning board, or suan pan (swän pän). This they use in the schools, banks, and shops throughout all of China even to this day, and they often calculate more rapidly in this way than we can with pencil and paper. You have probably seen the suan pan used if you have ever visited a Chinese laundry in any of our cities.

Number Stories, p54-illustration.png CHINESE ABACUS Chinese abacus, or suan pan. This instrument is used everywhere in China to-day 54