4s The Duodecinel Pultecse COUNTING IN DOZENS he TOM B. LINTON 1203 46 5 6 Duodecimal Bulletin Whole Nonber 25 Volume 12, No. 2 ecenber 1958 (2172) THE DUODECIMAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 20 Catton Pace SN Staten ian 4, ¥,THE DUODECIMAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA is voluntary nonprofit organisation for the conduct of esearch and education of the public an the use of Base Twelve. Un muneration, mathematica, egies and measures, and other branches of pure and applied science Fell membership with voting privileges cosices the passing of claencary tests inthe performance of twelve-base arithmetic ‘The lecoons and exeninations are free vo thore shoss entrance ‘pliorion ‘ve accepeed. Renictance af 85, coveringsaitiatson Fee (83) and one year's dues (42), mist accompany sppiseations lcioal Ballin is th official publication of be Doecimst Sogaey of ica, fren 30 Garfeon Faces eaten Iolani i Now fork F, Exeram Anifnsy Chrtnn of the Bowed ai Director Aagsand Gp, Prontsne Pape Teed, istr, Serorietiod 385 the Doonan! Soesety f Bwericn, Ines Fees for repeadcttonse grated pn sypicaon: Spatate sibscriptions 3.00» jenrs Soe scopy” “TABLE OF ONTENTS Proposal For A New Metvie System. « ~ T, Vs Colonn Lewis Carl Seetbach = 1886 1958 The Long Roll Duodecival Operations Fron Old Arithnetics The Duoiecinal System « ‘Thoms Hl Gooden (ve Language For The Word sone : Supplement To The Duodecinal Bibliography Barriers Aeay! Ghe Duodecimal Bulletin AU figures in italics ere daodecisel PROPOSAL. FOR A NEW METRIC SYSTEM by TV. Colonns Valeveki* Fram the dain of history nan knew how to count. He counted the days, he recorded the seasonay he used gra fingers, Kit hands, hie feet, and the Length of his stride for eessures nents, and he uiderstond measurement by weighe and selame: But all this was spontaneous aod without any aysten or order. in early atremps to introduce order int this chaos was made in ancient Babylon. A system based ca: 60 had come into ‘use. Te conprised measurement of Length, welghe, soney, time and angle. For 15 centuries this monument to ancient ‘thought! was never surpassed, ‘Through the Arabs, who modie Hedland developed it further, this ancient. system woe, handed dom to'us. They used fractions on the #0 bane minutes, seconds, ete), not for tine and angle only, but for fractions of any unit. Tater, they introdiced as to the Aecival nunber script which hae cone tote genere) ase, But measurenent becane confused by conflicting standards, Every countey, nay every small city and tamship. bad es oh ser Of measures, and these had very Little in common: A Htional syste became inpererive The Metric Systes, introduced by Napoleon's dectes of 1199, vas one such solution. Tt comprised length, volune and eapacity, weaght. and money. It offered two apparent edvane tages, = incerationality, and 5 natural basis fora standard of Length, While it'was soon proven that the calealation of this length standard was not precise, yet to change the se nounced length of the necer was tat convenient, and i war oncinued te an arbitrery value Progressively, many astions accepted the neteie system, ht it'vas not accepted by Britain nor by the €.'5. had chiefly hecause the decinal division was not as convenient fs that permitting division by 3, ty they mould set abendn the’ foot! 12 inches), or the shilling C2 pence) Thos it was originally: soon other defects were found ‘The centigrade theraoncter war accepted as part of the ays ten, Normal stmspherie pressure wes stated ax 760 am. of the barometric colusn; ive, a 1.033 kilograms per equate46 The Deodecinal Batters centimeter, Only then water boils at 100°C. TE, altematively Shuctly Lidlogren per square centineter had been adopted, hen water would bell at 09,1°C. Hloreover, many countries Inve negative (ive, below sera) temperatures in winter for thee reaaon the Fahverheit eeale, whose zero is lover, is prefersed there, Uitanately, it woe determined that absolute ero was -273- 16°C, whieh 1s neither -300", nor -250", nor Shen 1218 or 273% ‘The developnent of thetmodynanion introduced measores of enerey vinich becane’ az inportane as Bessures of length ot of Geignt. And fer the Gifferent types of anergy differentinits Giere used, navely: joules, kilosrancaeters, calories, vatt- Rours, exe. And the elations between thon were very complex, econ be seen from the following table. joules Iilogranmneters calories 1 = 9.10179 = o.239%2 960665 = 1 52st (ia 04265. 1 103s 19923 = 4239 = 1 tit. em un 5367008) > 860.83 FT aatiah, the values of 1.033 for the at “These intricacies ensve from for the acceleration by nospherie pressure, and of “The wodero practice of defining Length standards in waver Lengths of Light. har introduced another set of figures, une confontable.te the nettie aysten. The meter 1 defined ae 1°552" 164, is" waveclengthe of the ved Line of cedsium’ This {snot 1 552 Toll exactly. nor even 1 553 164.0 Te ur ek Siege that the weteie aysten in'not actually neturel, = but Wilerasy, inconventent, and unfit to be the international Standord: Thus, ie ie bur dey to find the may to eliminate these dissonances Now could we correct this? If we were to take a new enueh for the meter of 91,97 ame, sees; 2 521/628 codniom Fol‘ cavelengthe, and 992 2/3 grame ab a unt of mats, ve Gould heve a value for the acceleration by geevity ef 10 TNetera per second per second, and an etaospherie pressure SEL kilogran per square continecer. Consequently, the Bitogeanceeter would equal 10 joules end che Liter-atosphere ould equal i0 Kilograseneters oF 100 joules. Very well Wh some ew teoperatore scale, we could have a calorie, fot eqal_to 4-180 joules, bot to" Joules exactly, or = etee! still to L joule or 10 jovles. Bae what about the Sittchout? For it we sould have to divide the day-night The Deedaciant Bultesis 2 nto 10, 20, oF perhaps 25 hovrs, so that 38 would be 10°00’ seconds Instead of 86 400, "And we vould have to change every clock accordingly. Would this be possible? Tt Gs'more than certain that at least three-fovrehe af the people would refuse to give up their old clocks and vatches, Even though they were able to exchange then for new eval Srimore valuable ones, We would be tnvolved not_anly with ‘SSnple conservatise, byt the part played by traditionally Sacred, heare-touching, patriotic memories, a gore af Ectishiam, despite the exclusion of any racial factor. This is'the obstinate obstacle me would have to avercone, Sinilerly, with sone decinel division of angle, ve would bbe able to express invshole numbers che valuer of’ those, very nataral aagles of 30 and 60 degrens. Hence, we wal Rive ta agree that thix convenient fefore ia nov possible St long az se retain the number "ten" az_our base. Shall Se then drop the inprovanent. of the whole system for 20 Yeahs veaton? Bot all of this becomes different, if we question, nat the superstructure, but the number base itself fo se froly have to be bound by it What, if any, special quali- Heations docs it have?” "The fact is, only, that we have ten Fingers and that helps sone people to figure, Bat, primarily, in our age, that as aot fo important because we Ure'able to calculate better sn other ways Tf we changed our base to “twelve” all of these desire: ble changes become eary, and we can chen avail ourselves of dvantages that have Tong been recognized. Me sould have to adi only teo new figures, for dex, and. © for elf te eleven. 10 then bacones “dua” or doveny 100 is che gross, nd 1-000 To the “wigs” oF greatogcoss.. The wiosomios would be the 1 000 000 wr mirrot, foliowed by-the-barvedy che Is okie cbjectindable? ‘Certainly Wot. We wobld have to lesen the mltiplicacion-table of twelves, but we already do that, “ALl"celculation becomes easier, more fractions. cone ut even, and more factors are indiested by their familiar ndings, All primes end inf, 57, or.” The moat used Sonatinte GHSPETOESES are stuplTTted and improved ae faethe purcessive 4 fagure muleapeg by peeiols @ follows: V2 105, 02 = 4.805" VS = 29%, the golden pro portion = 75; 0 01 > 75 175, 1 OOL = 7s tT, Hoes + 350) i 5.180 09; Ip m = 0.564 053, @ = 2.875 236; Tae haat ates “in to's 2.59p fin, fece ties Cons greet rs) Gpetjeee Brea Crise greys 7 22) POP T7105, Lag tS hg Ip e = 0.495! 49h;38 The Desdecinnl Dal leein lg 2 = 0,942 O18; In 3 = 4.122 496; 1g 3 = 0.837 £82, oF 5.250815, vith four Higuees we ative double the quan Tgp with sis, cnple ‘Then hy has no one ever proposed it? Bue many have, ~ wong’ "then Laplace, Herbert, Spencer, Lancelot Hogben, 1. igen thd, more seeently, Enc. 1, Werner, a Britiah ex. one, shose dvodecimal proposal iz titled, "The TI1-Nede Metric’ Syaten™ We spree’ thet the cine as now cone to lead for it. Nature sions that the dozen base fs eruly Letter feted for calculation. Bat whee about the system of mensuranent? We shall ae. | SEREORR I Maestare at I ga Oe ae Sn aS a ee ea fut of she 9) ae go Teed SPs ‘the earth on ief aise Seve divide te into Tit ainutes, g/ Soebeties fae ae! wy nt matt wt wis weno Whe Lhe, Simin 25 400, 21/12 sec, 28/146 ec TPS Sen? 15” kinins Sik wees 2.608 see dove halfdey hour grad minote second So, 25/144 Cor 17361) second will be our new second Let us choose our unit of Length, = not directly = bot by Gerivation from the acceleratson by gravity. Since this ae eleration varues vith the Tatitode, we «ill select the average Valve a2 979,710 enfsee®, which for oot new second would Getablish a Length of 29,331 07 om Defining chis Length in wavelengths, we arrive at 458 666 wvez af the cadmium ted Tine. of $80 654.8 of the green Stated dundecimally. these are 124.522 aad 240 O98, 95 Preferably, these should be rounded eo Zt 522 an 240 000, which makes the Length unit precisely 29, 528 69 on, or T1'625"460'5 inches, (about 11 5/4"). Uneil this a5" given fan internationa! nate, se will call this the new foots Ginere’ has been van of the green Line of mercuryigg for de- Lining Length standards, and of the yellow-green Tine of krypton, But the decision of exact definition of thas Length standard may be deferred for the peesent.} Thre Length soald correspond to the acceleration by gravity for Tetitide 34° 80" Gnd Unison Obs. = 242 13! nearly ‘The Deadecinal Bediesin 39 ‘The duodesimal subdivisions and multiples of this nee foot would be er ow. (ined rae Bic es ag) EM Becertmin) sag is Noss, Force and Enetgy: Shall we elece mass or force as the foundation of oor stroctnre? Neither, but the pressure of the atnosphere, At hotmel, his sould be 31 tnches ofthe baronetrse. column (762:825 nm.) at 65. 33°F. CAB. S16°C),. an average. grav tion, This would be seated ae 1.0396 kg/ent. Our staniand of sass, then, is 9 qUORtity of meveury an # colsmn 752,825 ma. Righ' and of base ares of 871.94 ead or the mane of 901.253 kg. ‘This mass soold properly be the cor, but we will take 1/1728 of der ar 521,590 grane (18.4 English ounces) The force and veight nits Logically have to be ite weight ae novmal, acceleration by gravity: 0.52104 key or $10 966 Sines. ah heat geesaitef pogeiing ekjatds Combining Length and force unite, we have the basic unit for energy" 1-308 82 jovles, or 0-153 856 kon: which ie equivalent. to 0.360 70H calories. 1728 tines thio is GELB calories. Because of the inportance af these unite, Stable follows 2 MEP te ware Met gin (Se an 9 wore ea Sas The unit of power, im fact alse appears above: 6,690 8 eres, tines 198, equals 18.037} kilowatts, or 20.418 horsepoweran The Decdecinel Butera ‘Themoneter We have to choose whether to base our thernonetzy on enperature, oF an hest units. We vill do the Latter, 26 ore nearly ideal, and select the heat capecity of helium os Our standard. In! consequence, cur deatee equels 1.505 2°C SE 2.853 SF. Measuring [ror absolte-tero, the first gr ff degrees (i00) coincides with =44-99C, and the second Sith 188,37°C. For example, 154° would correspond with 18.516°C, or 65.329°F. "This would be used an the normal standard temperatore for research. inne jf done > Electrical Unite Dynamics, rather then scatice, have been chosen 26 the base for those unite, using the Lav of Bio Sava.” Flactric current has the dimension 7P, ubere Pia force, For this Season, we earlier chose the unit ef force as 310 966 dynes, tnd the unit of cursent would be 714,78 cag tum, omits, oF F495 eperes. Bat our graduations will represent 1/20 736 of this, or Sid 724 amp, We alzendy have the power amit of 8.690" sates: and the Fest fe simple The unit of quancity 0.089 848 conten potential 25.211 oles Pesietence T2139 5 Ghee Capacitance 2.373 9 milli farads inductance, 12.696 8 heneies To summarize the proposal, the following ix s list of eur ther unite " Length 29.528 689 4 on velocity 1,700 852 5 w/gee. area 8TL9ES 5 a er 61125 060 » baie soline 25.747 35 Liters acceleration 979,601 av/sec? mass 901,253, temperature 1,525 2° wd 32589 i sss oF energy 2.500 817 joules and 2.60 235 ij or 01158 855 hem oF 265.864 Raw or 0.360 TAB calories eae cal potenty 18,017 674k, of 20.418 127 bp. Anew aysten cannot be introduced im a few days, Te will take time and devoted effort. Bue the advantages it will Dring require thst the effart be nade. Aner, unified man- Kind needs 4 system of eott, measure, weight, angle and tine, {or use chroughout the weld LENTS CARL SEELBACH eee = 1958, Lewis Caz] Seelbach died of a heart atack on Tuesday, Septenber Meh, 1958, at the ever Nenorial Hospital Ruffalo, N'Y. Masonic services mere held, ‘Thursday, by the Occidental Lodge, F HA. Mls of which he was « 11 fo member. ‘The Diodecimal Society sours his lose. He joined the Society as an Aapirane a0 Decenber, 1044. the year in vhich Tine formally ancorporated, and completed his teste under our revered F. Tiovaed Seely." Their correspondence was EXigheened by many flashes of the quirky humor in which both sere 0 rich Professionally, Carl war a Certified Public Accountant, ‘an alunos of Pace Institute. fn 1954 he retired. fram his position ae Staff Accountant for che City of Bolfale,” Bat QGt'fine mind saaned the shale world of Learning, and vos ost engrossed in languages, apd the forms and formstions GE words. fle-was ar accomplished Faperantiat, and rorre- Sponded with friends of many nationalities an this inters Beeional tongve. He loved to play with words, Mis letters were full of anagrams and acrostice with Miiarious connotations. Theke Grvelopes sould be distended by packets GF clippings sbeve every conceivable objects Carl had never macried. le Lived a secluded and lonely Life. But hi find knew no barriers, and vhen he Sinind a congenial stwosphere his con versntion would telatiliate with novel sdear and strociou puna. He Wee deeply religious. ihe ceestive Edealish found sutlece tn a deep af- Feotion for tie Cathedral of Se. John the Divine ond the symbolise of ite design in he fathsoning of an Aronaie version of tho Lard fnve en Hlluninated sexsi] fo desplay sts title ina vertical« The Ds Jocknat Bal esin acrostic in its center; - in designing 9 "Globanner"* oF “Oriilasme” for the United Ratione, "in unending. advocacy fof One Marld and federal world government: = and in, ‘Shodecinals, Promotion of the advantages of the tnelve-base, and the eights and weasures of the dozen systen, became his major Interest, He wrote evangelistic letters to many prominent people about dvodecinalas lle developed s et of syabols, fnd's nonenclatore for duodecinal numbers which he cermed “Consovacalic.” Ultimately, he found the widest field for his energetic initiative and unoaual calents sn biblio- graphical research for the dozen system. lie wrote Letters, Eouched in English with an appended Esperanto version, to Sllvof the larger Libraries an the world, asking for Lists OF the catalog. entries for the duodecimal works in thei CollleceSons. Their gests fying responses were summarszed in S'sorios of bibliographical reports and, Later, ins compre- ensive Biblissraphy of uodecimals, published az Volume 8 Nomber 2 of the Duodecimal Bulletin, October 1952, He be- tenes menber of the Socsety's Foard of Directors Hig diabetes beeate troublesome, and he war subjected to a rigid snaulin regime, Nevertheless, he attended sll of tha mestings of our Board shich hia piyaieal condition per~ sitved, because these associations mere the greatest satse” Tsction of his life. Wen traveling to one of the recent sessions of the Board, in New ork, he Left Kix insula fpparatae at hone, and ves accorded emergency aid by" BebTevoe lospital Wis will, afver providing for settlement of his obliga- Lions, bequeathed the residue of his modect estate to, the Diodecinat Soosety ef Averica, Inc, His extensive, Library he'gave to Palph H. Heard tovard the altimate establishment OF the Lsbrary of che Society. Levis Carl Seelbich will continue to live in the affece ‘tion ad menory of those who bnew him. Ths nome is added to°the Long Bell of those eho bare witness to the Dozen, lind. continve these work beyord the Limite of tine and spece Wer ask’ then, our Dianrees, to weleone hin, and to guide and The Dusdecianl Bulletin a ‘THE LONG ROLL Simon 4: Burgoe Theme Hariot Pierre de Fermat Blaise Paseal Gotefried Withelm von Lesbnts JJoshus Jordaine Charles XIT Jonsan Wiedler Edvard Hatton Christopher Vonage Totanen Berckenbanp George Lovie Laclere Etienne Bezout JosephLouis Lagrange -? Pierre Sion Loplace ‘Tohn Blayfase ‘Johann Frisderich Christian Werneberg Jean Eeiennelontucla August Ferdanand Hacer ‘Eine lt laire Carnier-Deachenee Peter Barlow ‘Carl Gottlesb Anton Sileve Persad Vicente Pujatsde leBastide Car) Heinrich Wilhelm Breithaapt Louis Napoleon Tonge Pitman "Thones Lesth Feiederichileineich Alexander vonthmboldt, Pehr August Cronhele Karl Gottfried Borat ig pry Mareyn Parkhurst dole We Nystton Jacob M, Clark Based Robert Flogel Bl Ulrich E. GelinG. Halladay Sidney Armor Rorve Robert lorris Pierce Herbert Spencer Ay Cy Bldrsdge Te Re Vincent Rufus Pe Williams George Elbron Grover Cleveland Perey J. Hy Titherford Lee Jahn Besbow Senuel Sloan F-HonuedSeeiy F. Morton Saith “B. G. Nelle HG. G, Rabereson George BeenardShae Wendel] B, Capel Werren il, Chapin ‘iethur Goldens Willian Addison Deigaing Lewis Carl Seelbach DUODECIMAL OPERATIONS FROM OLD ARITEMETICS It is interesting to Leaf chrough old aritinetics to dis- over thither they contain anything unusual about duadeci= Is, “Even in the days of Robert Recorde, the arithmetic ooks included aaterial on eross-miltiplication, that’ they Called Duodecimal Aeitinetie (shiek, however, vaed only the hotation of the ten-base), for computing Linear meas Rents, areas, and cabages'in feet and inches, thirds (7), trad fourtha (018). F Dnerson Andrevs copied material” Flom an eld srichnetic by Benjamin Greenleaf, peinced in Boston. 1850, and then Tom Linton sent us material copied from an old beithsetie purchased in Carlile, Pas, in 1645, feam which the first 48 pages were missing. s0"chat the suthor and title are unknown, “The methods vsed in both are Similar, but before printing either in the Bulletin it vould ie"better that someone undertake the search for the earlsere form of this atrangenent.