John W. Nystrom
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John W. Nystrom (1825-1885) was a Swedish-American engineer, living 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.
[edit] Tonal System (Hexadecimal)
In 1859, Nystrom proposed a hexadecimal 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 tonal system.)
The numbers 1116 and 1216 would be said "tonan", "tonde", etc.
Nystrom called 1000016 (164) "bong" and 100016 (163) "mill". 10016 he designated "san".
This first hexadecimal system, proposed in the 19th century, had no success at all.
