Barter Arithmetic Handwritten Notebook from Pennsylvania, 1808-1829

[Education] 19th-century Handwritten Barter Arithmetic Notebook of Samuel Weidner of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, December, 1808-1829. 62 handwritten pages. 12" x 7.5". Samuel Weidner was born in 1791 in Pennsylvania. This handwritten notebook contains 21 years of notes, with the first being dated 1808, and the last being 1829. The first half of his notes are from his later years of high school, as he was around 17 years old at the time of writing. This notebook centers upon barter arithmetic, the mathematic style studied in the until the later 19th century. Handwritten titles read "Loss and Gains", "Fellowship", "Exchange", On each page, his notes are typically organized with a title headline on top, a subheading detailing the mathematical rule, and examples of problem-solving and computations underneath, all by hand. These computations are typically long division of long numbers to represent prices, for instance "1265.50 divided by 165191.02" or "2000 divided by 6840912" . In another instance, he writes When describing "Fellowship", Weidner writes "Fellowship is the rule for adjusting the several quota of the loss or gain of any joint adventure of a bankruptcy effect". Weidner describes proofs as "The sum of the several shares must equal the whole gain or loss". He also writes that "Loss and Gain is a method of computing the profits or loss on the purchase or sale of goods", and follows this with a note to "observe the note in 'Barter'". He also describes exchange as "The various operation in the exchanging of monies are performed by the single rule of three or by practice". He writes one practice question on the topic of exchange, writing "Dublin draws upon London for 740.146 Irish exchange at 12 percent. How much sterling will discharge this bill?". The second half of the notebook contains several pages of handwritten records of payments to and from different family members and other merchants. On a page titled "July 2nd, 1826 Money paid of by the treasury of Weidner", he writes payments for "Seth Smith - 30.00", "Ben Lehman Bill - 3.77", "Ruben Cox - 9.00". On December 12th, 1826, he "Paid for lamps - $17.00" and bought "1/2 gallon pine oil - .37". He records many payments for household groceries, like "butter - 0.60", eggs, and cabbage. Weidner writes on a small page, documenting the birth of his son Uriah. On this page, he writes "Uriah Weidner was born on the 16th Day of September in the year of our lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty eight". Front and back covers are detached from the rest of the notebook. Some dampstaining and foxing throughout, otherwise very good condition.