2006.15

Numberaid teaching abacus

Milsco Manufacturing Company

Numberaid abacus in original box with instruction manual; black plastic slotted foot and top; five vertical gray plastic rods with a gray plastic shelf separation the top row of beads from the lower row; two beads on rods above the shelf, nine beads below the shelf; left to right, beads are translucent blue, yellow, white, red, and green; an aluminum sliding indicator bar is wrapped around the top; embossed in white on frame, "Numberaid/MANUFACTURED AND DISTRIBUTED BY/MILSCO MANUFACTURING CO. Milwaukee, Wis./An Arithmetic Learning Aid Designed For Burroughs Corporation."; yellow and blue cardboard box with drawing of the product and a child using one on the lid; 120 p. stabled softbound instruction manual.

H-1.125 W-5.25 D-5.125 inches

ca. 1955

Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee, WI

The commercial version of an abacus designed by educator Andrew F. Schott. Schott developed an elementary school mathematics curriculum known as individualized mathematics in the mid 1950s which was adopted by schools all over the country. In the early 1960s, Carson Nolan and the research department at APH began studying the possibility of adapting Schott's system in schools for the blind. An abacus developed by Schott, the Numberaid, and a number of other devices, the Calculaid, measureaid (a ruler and protractor), fractionaid, geometraid were eventually listed in the APH catalog along with braille and large type texts. The testing ended inconclusively in the late 1960s, although the numberaid continued to be sold at late as 1979.

Museum Purchase, 2006.15.