Search

John Morison of Windham, New Hampshire, compiled this mathematical cypher book, containing extensive notes and practice problems on sailing, surveying, trigonometry, accounting, weights and measures, arithmetic, algebra, fractions, decimals, geometry, geodesia, and navigation. Many of the signatures are of different-size paper and stitched together using different thread. The final signature is upside down from the rest of the volume and contains penmanship practice, poetry, a song, scattered family names, miscellaneous figures, and drawings (including a windmill).

John Morison of Windham, New Hampshire, compiled this mathematical cypher book, containing extensive notes and practice problems on sailing, surveying, trigonometry, accounting, weights and measures, arithmetic, algebra, fractions, decimals, geometry, geodesia, and navigation. Many of the signatures are of different-size paper and stitched together using different thread. The final signature is upside down from the rest of the volume and contains penmanship practice, poetry, a song, scattered family names, miscellaneous figures, and drawings (including a windmill).

• Cases [these pages are severely damaged along the foredge with loss to significant text]
• Division of Coin, Weights &c [these pages are severely damaged along the foredge with significant loss of text]
• Reduction descending & ascending [application of multiplication and division]
• Tare & Trett &c [weights and measures between vendor and customer]
• The Single Rule of Three Direct
• Rule of Three Reverse
• The Double Rule of Three Direct
• The Double Rule of Three Reverse
• Compound Proportion
• Simple Interest
• Compound Company
• Factor's Allowance
• Interest for Months ; For Weeks ; Interest for Days
• Rebate or Discount
• Equation of Payment
• Barter
• Profit & Loss
• Simple Company
• Exchange [currency exchange]
• Comparison Weights & Measures
• Alligation Alternate
• Double Position, or Negative Arithmetic
• Progression Arithmetical
• Geometrical Progression
• Permutation, or Changing the order of Things
• Vulgar Fractions & first of Reduction
• Addition of Vulgar
• Subtraction of Vulgar
• Multiplication of Vulgar Fractions
• Division of Vulgar Fractions
• Addition of Decimals ; Subtraction of Decimals
• Multiplication of Decimals ; Division of Decimals
• Reduction of Decimals
• Simple Rule of Three Direct in Decimals
• Practical Geometry
• Plain Trigonometry Rectangular
• Extraction of the Square Root &c &c
• Extraction of the Cube Root
• Surveying &c. &c. &c.
• Mensuration Surveying &c.
• [Draft of a legal document related land/labor]
• Algebra
• Numerical Algebra
• Evolution of Whole Quantities
• Fractions
• Evolution of Fractional Quantities
• Addition & Subtraction of Surd Quantities ; Multiplication of Surds ; Involution of Surds
• Reduction by Involution
• Of Analyses, or the Method of Resolving Problems
• Practical Geometry
• Plain Trigonometry Rectangular
• Plain Trigonometry Obliquangular
• Plain Sailing the First Part
• Plain Sailing the Second Part
• Traverse Sailing
• Oblique Sailing
• Mercator's Sailing
• Middle Latitude Sailing
• Geodesia or Surveying [with a landscape cross section, a sketch of a field, and a sketch of a tower]
• Alimetry & Longimetry [with one sketch of a tower in a field, a sketch of a windmill, large building, and tree]
• Variation of the Compass
• Dialing [with one sketch of a horizontal dial]

• Penmanship practice, repeated copies of: "Know all men by these Presents that I John morison of the Perish of Windam", "ten things A Penman should have Near at Hand" [sadly, the ten things are not listed], and "from thy Desk to keep thy breast from harm upright thy head", and others.
• Multiplication table and many miscellaneous scribbled mathematical notations and problems.
• Some poetry and many partial words, family names, and letter practice.
• "[New?] Song with its own tune Prented 1764" on a relationship separation in which the man was scorned by the woman, but then on her remorse they reunited.

This collection is made up of 2 volumes that Marianna Chandler Lanman composed while studying at Mrs. Rowson's Academy for Young Ladies in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1814. One concerns arithmetic, focusing on practical applications in bookkeeping, conversion, and monetary transactions; the other contains copied poems, calligraphic alphabets, and graphic illustrations.

This collection is made up of 2 volumes that Marianna Chandler Lanman composed while studying at Mrs. Rowson's Academy for Young Ladies in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1814. One concerns arithmetic, focusing on practical applications in bookkeeping, conversion, and monetary transactions; the other contains copied poems, calligraphic alphabets, and graphic illustrations. Lanman dedicated both volumes to her parents.

Lanman composed the first volume, entitled "Practical Arithmetic[:] Comprising All the Rules for Transacting Business" (10"x16", 60 pages), at Mrs. Rawson's Academy in 1814. Its sections, each labeled in calligraphy, concern mathematical operations, rules and theorems; weights and measures; and practical applications of mathematical principles. Many of the later pages concern subjects such as the calculation of simple and compound interest, the value of "federal money" against "lawful money" (state currencies), commission charges, and bookkeeping. The explanatory text is accompanied by finished exercises and problems. The volume also includes tables of weights and measures and an index.

The second volume, "Specimens of Penmanship" (16"x10", 23 pages), is undated. Lanman copied poetry and proverbs on the book's odd-numbered pages; most concern subjects such as happiness, rural living, and gratitude. The title of a poem on the "Pleasures of retired Life" is written on a drawing of a ribbon (p. 19). One poem, entitled "Virtue's Tears Embalm the Brave," is dedicated to the memory of American casualties of the War of 1812 (p. 21). The volume contains several drawings: a hermit in his home (p. 3), a bald eagle among patriotic decorations (p. 21), a sailing ship (p. 21), and a line drawing of a bird with the word "industry" in its feathers (p. 23). The volume also includes examples of cursive, German, and Old English alphabets.