John W. Nystrom

John W. Nystrom ( _sv. Johan Vilhelm Nyström) (1825-1885) was a Swedish-American engineer, who lived in Philadelphia, United States.

Nystrom received many patents for inventions such as a marine steam engine, a refrigerator, and calculating machines. His "slide ruler patent" N° 7961 obtained on March 4, 1851 was one of the first US patents. Nystrom also proposed switching from base 10 to base 16.

=Tonal System (Hexadecimal)=

In 1859, Nystrom proposed a hexadecimal (base 16) system of notation, arithmetic, and metrology called the Tonal System. In addition to new weights and measures, his proposal included a new calendar with sixteen months, a new system of coinage, and a hexadecimal clock with sixteen hours in a day.

He proposed Esperanto-like names for the hexadecimal digits, calling zero "noll" and counting (from one to sixteen):

"An, de, ti, go, su, by, ra, me, ni, ko, hu, vy, la, po, fy, ton." (Therefore "ton"al system.)

The numbers 11₁₆ and 12₁₆ would be said "tonan", "tonde", etc. The table below shows Nystrom's names for successive powers of 10₁₆.

Thus, the hexadecimal number 1510,0000 would be "mill-susanton-bong".

This first hexadecimal system, proposed in the 19th century, had no success at all.

External links

* Nystrom, John W. [http://books.google.com/books?id=aNYGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA105&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#PPP1,M1 "Project of a New System of Arithmetic, Weight, Measure and Coins, Proposed to be Called the Tonal System, with Sixteen to the Base"] . Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1862 (at Google Books)
* Nystrom's Articles: On a new system of arithmetic and metrology, called the tonal system - [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0016-0032(63)90258-8 Part 1] , [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0016-0032(63)90301-6 Part 2] , [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0016-0032(63)90604-5 Part 3]
* [http://www.oughtred.org/patents.shtml His "slide ruler patent," 1851.]