John W. Nystrom

John William Nystrom (born as Johan Vilhem Nyström , * 1825 in Småland , † May 11, 1885 in Philadelphia ( Pennsylvania ) was an American engineer born in Sweden . He lived mainly in Philadelphia).

Hexadecimal clock with the characters invented by Nystrom

Nystrom's hexadecimal compass

A page from the "Tonal System" book

Nyström studied engineering at the Royal Technical University in Stockholm . He emigrated to the United States in the 1840s and became a US citizen in 1854.

As a recognized technical inventor, he has been granted several patents, for example for ship propellers, cooling units and calculating machines. His slide ruler with the patent number 7961 from March 4, 1851 was one of the first US patents ever.

Tonal system

Around 1863 he created a hexadecimal system of measurement, called the "tonal system", with a hexadecimal time format of 16 hours per day.

“I am not afraid, or do not hesitate, to advocate a binary system of arithmetic and metrology. I know I have nature on my side; if I do not succeed to impress upon you its utility and great importance to mankind, it will reflect that much less credit upon our generation, upon scientific men and philosophers. "

“I fearlessly do not hesitate to advocate binary arithmetic and measurement technology. I know nature is on my side. If I cannot convince you of their usefulness and great importance for humanity, that does not throw a good light on our generation, their scientists and their philosophers. "

- John W. Nystrom, ca.1863

Nystrom proposed separate numeric words for its hexadecimal numbers or digits.

The "tonal system" called the number zero: "noll" and then counted on (from one to sixteen):
"An, de, ti, go, su, by, ra, me, ni, ko, hu, vy, la , po, fy,  ton . "(Therefore ton ales system.)
The numbers" sixteen-and-one "," sixteen-two "and so should therefore" ton-an "," ton-de "etc. hot.

Nystrom called the 100 _hex = 256 _dec "san", the 1000 _hex = 4,096 _dec "mill" and the 1.0000 _hex = 65,536 _dec "bong".

The suggestion of a hexadecimal system of measurement was just as unsuccessful as the suggestion of independent numerals.

Duodenal system

In 1875, Nystrom proposed a duodecimal system, which he called the duodenal system.

Web links

• Nystrom, John W. Project of a New System of Arithmetic, Weight, Measure and Coins, Proposed to be Called the Tonal System, with Sixteen to the Base . Philadelphia: JB Lippincott, 1862 (Google Books)
• Nystrom's article "On a new system of arithmetic and metrology, called the tonal system" - doi : 10.1016 / 0016-0032 (63) 90258-8 (part 1), doi : 10.1016 / 0016-0032 (63) 90301-6 ( Part 2), doi : 10.1016 / 0016-0032 (63) 90604-5 (part 3)
• His slide rule patent from 1851.