Counters

Introduction

Some of the simplest computing devices made and sold are aids to counting. From ancient to early modern times, scribes performing calculations moved small stones or metal tokens along lines. More recently, mechanical counters have been widely used to count crowds and objects, and as parts of machines.

In the nineteenth century, several inventors patented mechanical counters. Patent models surviving in the Mathematics Collections at the National Museum of American History suggest the range of their concerns. Paul Stillman in 1854 and Daniel Davies and Edward Wright in 1876 patented improvements in rotary measures, such as were used in revolution counters for steam engines. In 1874, Alexander Atkinson patented a counting register to help track quantities of grain. As the amount of leisure time available to Americans increased, three inventors around 1880 saw fit to patent counters to keep score in games.

By the turn of the century, mechanical revolution counters were incorporated in laboratory apparatus, in factories using engines, in distance measures such as odometers, and in cash registers. Americans manufactured them and imported them from abroad. Government offices bought and made counters to compile statistics, and employers used them to figure out the bills and coins they needed to meet payroll.  Of course counters were incorporated in a wide range of vehicles and meters. Handheld counters are used to this day to count people entering and leaving buildings and on public transit.

References:

D. Baxandall, rev, J. Pugh, Calculating Machines and Instruments, London: Science Museum, 1975, p. 66.

Examples of counting tokens are in the Smithsonian's National Numismatics collection.

Counting the number of revolutions of a shaft allowed steamship owners to gauge the distance between ports, helped gas companies measure the quantity of their product sold, and aided engineers seeking to determine when a steam pump would require fuel.
Description
Counting the number of revolutions of a shaft allowed steamship owners to gauge the distance between ports, helped gas companies measure the quantity of their product sold, and aided engineers seeking to determine when a steam pump would require fuel. Combined with a watch, revolution counters allowed one to measure the velocity of any number of machines.
Eugène Deschiens, whose business was active in Paris from 1866 until 1894, was an eminent manufacturer of revolution counters and velocity meters (known also as tachometers). An 1884 article on tachometers reported that his instrument was “so well known we need not describe it.” His devices won prizes at national and international exhibitions. They were used on ships of both the French and the British navies, as well as by a range of other manufacturers.
This small cylindrical instrument has brass sides, a glass top, and a metal bottom painted black. Under the glass are five windows, which show digits. Steel or German silver rods extend from opposite sides of the cylinder. A section of the case contains eight steel pieces that may be used to turn these rods and hence cause the counter to count. One of these has an ivory handle. The pieces are in different shapes, so that they will link to different mechanisms.
A mark inside the glass top read: COMPTEUR (/) SYSTÈME BREVETÉ S.G.D.G. (/) No 701. Another in the same location reads: E. Deschiens (/) Constructeur (/) PARIS.
The wooden case is lined with satin and velvet and partly covered with leather. A mark on the lining of the lid reads: MÉDAILLES de MERITE VIENNE 1873 (/) OR, PLATINE & ARGENT PARIS 1875 (/) MÉCANIQUE de PRÉCISION (/) TÉLÉGRAPHIE & HOROLOGERIE (/) ÉLECTRIQUES (/) E. DESCHIENS (/) 123 Boulevard St Michel (/) PARIS.
References:
E. Deschiens, Compteur Totalisateur, [ca 1875]. This is a trade catalog.
J. E. Deschiens, “Système de compteur à mouvement alternatif ou à piston, dit: Compteur de poche,” Brevet d’invention 159,294, December 20, 1883. A copy is at: http://www.ami19.org/BrevetsFrancais/1883Deschiens/1883Deschiens.pdf.
“Compteur totalisateur de M. E. Deschiens,” Les Mondes, 32 #9, October 30, 1873, pp. 373–374.
“A New Tachometer,” Scientific American Supplement, 18, November 1, 1884, p. 7358.
J. Laffargue, “Les Compteurs et Indicateurs de Nombre de Tours,” La Nature, 22, December 2, 1893, pp. 45–46.
L’Industrie Française des Instruments de Précision, Paris: Syndicat des Constructeurs en Instruments d’Optique & de Précision, 1902. pp. 74–77. This is an advertisement by Deschiens’s successor, Alph. Darras.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1876
maker
Deschiens, Eugene
ID Number
MA.314905
catalog number
314905
accession number
212171

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