Adders - Circular Adders
On some adders, numbers were represented along an arc of a circle. People used their fingers or a stylus to enter numbers. On a few of these instruments, a mechanism allowed one to carry a single digit. These objects are described here as adders with carry. They blur the line between adders and adding machines.
"Adders - Circular Adders" showing 2 items.
Mendenhall's Practical Calculator
- Description
- This patent model for an adder has a brass box with a rotating disc inset in the top. There are 100 small holes around the rim of the disc. Outside the disc, on the top of the box, is a circular ring numbered from 01 to 99, with a gap at 00. Outside of this are three rings of holes, with 100 holes in each ring. These holes are to be used to hold markers indicating digits carried when the disc makes full rotations. On the side of the box is a rotating multiplication table.
- A. Mendenhall, who patented this adder, was undoubtedly Amos Mendenhall, who was born in Ohio in 1828 and raised in east central Indiana. His father, Hiram Mendenhall (1801-1852) was a miller and farmer by trade and a Quaker and abolitionist in belief. In 1844, Hiram Mendenhall, as a representative of the Randolph County Anti-Slavery Society, presented a petition to presidential candidate Henry Clay, urging him to free his slaves. Clay refused and publicly rebuked Mendenhall. Hiram Mendenhall went on to pool his property with others to form the Unionport commune of the Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform. This effort soon collapsed and Hiram and Amos went to California to recoup the family fortunes in the gold fields. They failed to do this, and Hiram died of cholera on shipboard en route home. Amos, his mother, and his siblings continued to live in Unionport, where Amos farmed and tinkered. In the 1880 census, his occupation is given as “manufacture.”
- The “practical calculator” was Mendenhall's first patented invention. He took out patents for gold mining devices (#360713, granted April 5, 1887, and # 541912, granted June 11, 1895), a tricycle (#453151, granted May 26, 1891), and a bicycle (#740156, granted September 29, 1903).
- References: Patent #67,786, August 13, 1867 (Munn Co., attorneys); Scientific American, vol. 17, August 31, 1867, p. 141.
- U.S. Census records for 1860, 1880, 1900.
- Thomas D. Hamm, God’s Government Begun: The Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform, 1842-1846, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1867
- patentee
- Mendenhall, A.
- maker
- Mendenhall, A.
- ID Number
- MA*252691
- accession number
- 49064
- catalog number
- 252691
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Taylor Adding Machine
- Description
- This patent model for a circular adder has a wooden base that supports three concentric wooden rings and a central mechanism. The outer fixed ring is serrated around the outer edge. The 100 serrations are numbered in ink from 1 to 99 (the 0 serration isn’t numbered) on a paper ring glued to the surface of the ring. Inside this ring is a movable ring, with 100 upward-facing serrations around its edge. These are numbered on an adjacent piece of paper from 00 to 99. Inside this ring is a third fixed ring, serrated on the inside, and also carrying a numbered slip of paper numbered from 00 to 99.
- Two wooden arms are mounted on a rotating wooden platform at the center of the instrument. The larger arm is designed to link to the two outer rings and the smaller one to the middle ring only. The machine has a carry from the tens to the hundreds place. It is intended to be used for adding columns of figures, two places at a time. The machine was patented by Elmore W. Taylor of Franklin, Indiana, in 1874.
- Earlier, Elmore W. Taylor of Franklin, Indiana, took out patent 56464 for an evaporator (relating to furnaces) on July 17, 1866. Elmore W. Taylor of Detroit, Michigan, took out a patent for a card and picture holder in 1883 (#274052). Elmore W. Taylor of Johnson County, Indiana, married Maggie A. Toner on October 5, 1876. The 1880 US Census lists an “Elmer W. Taylor,” photographer, age 31, born in Michigan with parents born in New York, who was living in Detroit with Margaret A. Taylor, age 21, who was born in Indiana. Hence it seems likely that all three patents were held by the same inventor.
- Reference: U.S. Patent 155772, October 6, 1874.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1874
- patentee
- Taylor, Elmore W.
- maker
- Taylor, Elmore W.
- ID Number
- MA*309325
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- 309325
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center