Adders - Notched Band Adders
Building on ideas of Perrault and de Caze, in 1842 the Russian E. Kummer replaced the wooden rods on an adder with metal bands notched on each side. Kummer’s idea was adopted by the Frenchman Troncet, who published what he called an Arithmographe in the 1890s. Adders with notched bands became the most common form of the instrument sold in the United States in the 20th century.
These stylus-operated instruments generally had a crook at the top of each column, to allow one to move adjacent bands in carrying (or, in some cases, borrowing) a digit. They were manufactured around the world. Occasionally, notched band adders were combined with a slide rule, to ease multiplication and division. A special form of the instrument, designed for computer programmers, aided calculations in base 60 rather than usual decimal arithmetic.
"Adders - Notched Band Adders" showing 1 items.
The Little Adding Wonder
- Description
- This notched band adder has a wooden framework. Six paper bands move in six columns, showing the result in six windows. A paper sheet glued to the front has numerals and the name of the device, as well as cutouts to create the columns. A sheet glued to the back gives instructions. The columns widen at the top for carrying in addition and at the bottom for borrowing in subtraction. The object came to the Smithsonian from the collection of Felt and Tarrant Manufacturing Company. The date assigned is quite arbitrary.
- Reference: P. Kidwell, “Adders Made and Used in the United States,” Rittenhouse, 1994, 8:78-96.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1925
- distributor
- Adding Wonder Manufacturers
- maker
- Adding Wonder Manufacturers
- ID Number
- MA*323626
- catalog number
- 323626
- accession number
- 250163
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center