Science & Mathematics

The Museum's collections hold thousands of objects related to chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy, and other sciences. Instruments range from early American telescopes to lasers. Rare glassware and other artifacts from the laboratory of Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, are among the scientific treasures here. A Gilbert chemistry set of about 1937 and other objects testify to the pleasures of amateur science. Artifacts also help illuminate the social and political history of biology and the roles of women and minorities in science.

The mathematics collection holds artifacts from slide rules and flash cards to code-breaking equipment. More than 1,000 models demonstrate some of the problems and principles of mathematics, and 80 abstract paintings by illustrator and cartoonist Crockett Johnson show his visual interpretations of mathematical theorems.

The remarkable advances in electronics and microwave technology made during World War II stimulated the physicists who had worked on them to imagine new applications after the war for peacetime conditions.
Description
The remarkable advances in electronics and microwave technology made during World War II stimulated the physicists who had worked on them to imagine new applications after the war for peacetime conditions. An outstanding example is the cesium-beam frequency standard, one of several types of "atomic clock" developed in the postwar years.
This is the experimental instrument built under the supervision of Jerrold Zacharias at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1954. It showed that the atomic beam principle was feasible as a technique for extremely precise timekeeping, and paved the way immediately for a commercial version closely modeled on it.
The idea on which it relied had been known for two decades. The American physicist I. I. Rabi had applied it in the late 1930s to precise measurements of the magnetic moments and "spins" of nuclei of various kinds of atoms. Rabi knew that atoms behave as tiny magnets: a beam of them, traveling in a vacuum, can be deflected slightly by passing through a non-uniform magnetic field.
Furthermore, the strength of the atomic magnet, and its direction relative to that of the magnetic field, can be altered by microwaves whose frequency exactly matches (is in resonance with) a frequency characteristic of the atoms used in the experiment. Rabi's apparatus detected the change in deflection of the atomic beam when this resonance occurred.
In 1953, Zacharias, who as a graduate student had collaborated in Rabi's prewar experiments, started vigorous work on making such an atomic-beam apparatus function as a clock. By the next summer, he and his student R. D. Haun, assisted by visiting researcher J. G. Yates, were able to make the atomic vibrations of a cesium beam control a crystal oscillator, whose frequency then became as precise as that of the cesium atoms. This oscillator frequency in turn could be used for timekeeping far more precise than any previously possible.
The device shown is the atomic beam portion, the heart of the system, which was enclosed in a tall vacuum chamber when in use. Cesium atoms boiled out of an oven near the bottom and formed a beam, which passed a deflecting magnet, and then traversed a space in which it was subjected to the oscillating microwave field. It then passed a second deflecting magnet, which served to bring the atoms to a focus, as in Rabi's method, on a detector. This determined any deviation from resonance and sent a signal to circuits which adjusted the microwave frequency accordingly.
Zacharias's apparatus is noteworthy for being designed as a prototype for an instrument intended to be sold commercially. Unlike the traditional horizontal atomic beam apparatus, this one stood compactly vertical. It used permanent magnets rather than electromagnets; had convenient connections for vacuum pump, electronics, and microwaves; and had an oven designed to run for a long time without stopping. Zacharias persuaded the National Company, a manufacturer of radio equipment in nearby Malden, Mass., to take on the task of developing a commercial version under his supervision. After overcoming many difficulties, they began delivering the "Atomichron" in the autumn of 1956, mainly to military laboratories. Despite its high cost, $50,000, it sold well to those laboratories, and the Signal Corps declared that it "performed well beyond all expectations."
Reference: Paul Forman, "'Atomichron': The Atomic Clock from Concept to Commercial Product," Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 73, No. 7, July 1985, pp. 1811-1204.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1955
maker
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ID Number
EM.319767
catalog number
319767
accession number
254080
Working at the Lamont Geological Observatory, a Columbia University facility in Palisades, N.Y., Frank Press and his mentor, Maurice Ewing, developed seismometers that responded to surface waves of long-period and small-amplitude, whether caused by explosions or by earthquakes.
Description
Working at the Lamont Geological Observatory, a Columbia University facility in Palisades, N.Y., Frank Press and his mentor, Maurice Ewing, developed seismometers that responded to surface waves of long-period and small-amplitude, whether caused by explosions or by earthquakes. The first long-period vertical seismometer at Lamont came to public attention in early 1953 with news that it had recorded waves from a large earthquake that had recently occurred at Kamchatka, in the Soviet Union. A painting of a subsequent but similar Lamont instrument appeared on the cover of Scientific American in March 1959.
This example was made for the World Wide Standard Seismological Network. Established in 1961, the WWSSN was designed to detect underground nuclear tests and generate valuable information about the earth’s interior and its dynamic processes. The WWSSN was a key component of VELA Uniform, a Cold War project that was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a branch of the Department of Defense. It was managed by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and then by the U.S. Geological Survey. That agency transferred this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1999.
Each of the 120 WWSSN stations had an instrument of this sort. This example was used in Junction City, Tex. It would have been linked to a matched galvanometer (such as 1999.0275.09) and a photographic drum recorder (such as 1999.0275.10). The “Sprengnether Instrument Co.” signature refers to a small shop in St. Louis, Mo., that specialized in seismological apparatus.
Like other long-period vertical seismometers developed at Lamont, this one was built around a “zero-length spring” of the sort that had been proposed in 1934 by Lucien LaCoste, a graduate student in physics at the University of Texas, and later incorporated into the gravity meters manufactured by LaCoste & Romberg.
Ref: United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Instrumentation of the World-Wide Seismograph System, Model 10700 (Washington, D.C., 1962)
Ta-Liang Teng, “Seismic Instrumentation,” in Methods of Experimental Physics, vol. 24 part B, Geophysics (1987), pp. 56-58.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961-1962
maker
W. F. Sprengnether Instrument Co.
ID Number
1999.0275.03
catalog number
1999.0275.03
accession number
1999.0275
Among the first electronic mobile robots were the experimental machines of neuroscientist W. Grey Walter. Walter studied the brain’s electrical activity at the Burden Neurological Institute (BNI) near Bristol, England.
Description
Among the first electronic mobile robots were the experimental machines of neuroscientist W. Grey Walter. Walter studied the brain’s electrical activity at the Burden Neurological Institute (BNI) near Bristol, England. His battery-powered robots were models to test his theory that a minimum number of brain cells can control complex behavior and choice. Soon after World War II, electronic motors and computers made possible such experimental robots that imitated living intelligence. Researchers like Walter then sought to answer a question that still occupies their successors: How close can machines come to human intelligence?
In the late 1940s Walter built his first model animals—simple, slow-moving, tortoise-shaped machines he named Elmer and Elsie. In 1951, Walter enlisted BNI engineer W. J. Warren to build the robot displayed here.
The machines are designed to explore their environment and react to it with two senses—sight and touch. A rotating photoelectric cell, the machine’s “eye,” scans the horizon continuously until it detects an external light. Scanning stops and the machine either moves toward the light source or, if the source is too bright, moves away. An external contact switch, sensitive to touch, causes the machine to retreat if it encounters obstacles. The robots retreat to a recharging station when their batteries were low.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
ID Number
1993.0500.01
accession number
1993.0500
catalog number
1993.0500.01
While studying physics with Arnold Romberg at the University of Texas in 1933, Lucien LaCoste designed a seismometer with a so-called "zero length spring." LaCoste and Romberg formed a partnership in 1939 and began making seismometers and then gravity meters incorporating springs
Description
While studying physics with Arnold Romberg at the University of Texas in 1933, Lucien LaCoste designed a seismometer with a so-called "zero length spring." LaCoste and Romberg formed a partnership in 1939 and began making seismometers and then gravity meters incorporating springs of this sort.
As gravity meters became ever more precise, LaCoste realized that they could be used to measure earth tides. H. Neal Clarkson, a machinist at LaCoste & Romberg, designed and built the first earth tide meter under LaCoste's direction, this work serving as Clarkson's dissertation project for a PhD in physics from the University of Texas.
The DL-1 was an improved instrument that could detect variations in gravity of the order of one microgal, or one part in a billion. It was built by LaCoste & Romberg in 1953 and installed in the firm's workshop in Austin, Texas. The Institute of Geophysics at UCLA acquired the DL-1 for the worldwide survey of earth tides that it conducted during the International Geophysical Year 1957-1958. The Institute donated the instrument to the Smithsonian in 2000.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1953
maker
LaCoste & Romberg
ID Number
2000.0194.01
catalog number
2000.0194.01
accession number
2000.0194
This object, the focusing assembly from the second maser, was made at Columbia University in 1954 by a team led by physicist Charles H. Townes. Maser stands for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
Description
This object, the focusing assembly from the second maser, was made at Columbia University in 1954 by a team led by physicist Charles H. Townes. Maser stands for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Masers operate on the same principals as lasers, but they amplify microwaves instead of light. In fact, masers came first. Microwaves have lower energy levels than light and so were easier to produce, although the maser was not a simple invention.
After working on microwave radar and other devices during the Second World War, Townes undertook investigations of microwave spectroscopy at Columbia University. Working with James Gordon and Herbert Zeigler, he successfully demonstrated an ammonia-beam maser in April 1954. The unit was quite large so Townes developed a smaller unit later that year, several pieces of which were donated to the Smithsonian in 1965.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1954
associated date
1953
maker
Townes, Charles H.
ID Number
EM.323893
catalog number
323893
accession number
260038
This small refracting telescope was made for Operation Moonwatch, a satellite tracking program organized in the 1950s. It has an aluminum tube, and an objective lens of 50 mm (about 2 inches) aperture.
Description
This small refracting telescope was made for Operation Moonwatch, a satellite tracking program organized in the 1950s. It has an aluminum tube, and an objective lens of 50 mm (about 2 inches) aperture. Inscriptions read “7580251” and “7638223.” It belonged to Everett Harrington Hurlburt, a professional astronomer and physicist.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1956
around 1957
ID Number
1988.0636.03
accession number
1988.0636
catalog number
1988.0636.03
This is one of four brass templates illustrating the base pairings of adenine and thymine or cytosine and guanine, from Francis Crick's and James Watson's original model of the "double helix" of DNA.
Description
This is one of four brass templates illustrating the base pairings of adenine and thymine or cytosine and guanine, from Francis Crick's and James Watson's original model of the "double helix" of DNA. Two templates show the correct base pair shapes; two others are earlier, misconceived models. In his book, The Double Helix, Watson recounts the moment he and Crick assembled the first correct model. A key clue for matching the correct forms of adenine and thymine or guanine and cytosine came from American crystallographer Jerry Donohue, who worked in the same laboratory as Watson and Crick. Data from Donohue and other crystallographers, including Rosalind Franklin, was key to Watson and Crick’s success. After the double helix research was published in Nature, generating tremendous worldwide notoriety, Donohue kept the model templates as souvenirs. Later, he returned to the United States, taking a position at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Shortly before his death, Donohue gave the templates to his friend and fellow crystallographer, Dr. Helen Berman, who presented them to the Smithsonian in 1988.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1953
originator
Crick, Francis
Watson, James
maker
Cavendish Laboratory
ID Number
1988.0494.01
accession number
1988.0494
catalog number
1988.0494.01
Working at the Lamont Geological Observatory, a Columbia University facility in Palisades, N.Y., Frank Press and his mentor, Maurice Ewing, designed seismometers that responded to surface waves of long-period and small-amplitude whether caused by explosions or by earthquakes.
Description
Working at the Lamont Geological Observatory, a Columbia University facility in Palisades, N.Y., Frank Press and his mentor, Maurice Ewing, designed seismometers that responded to surface waves of long-period and small-amplitude whether caused by explosions or by earthquakes. Their horizontal seismometer was of the “garden-gate” form: here, the horizontal boom attaches to the lower end of a vertical post, and a diagonal wire extends from the upper end of the post to the outer end of the boom. The first example was installed in 1953.
This example was made for the World Wide Standard Seismological Network. Established in 1961, the WWSSN was designed to detect underground nuclear tests, and generate valuable information about the earth’s interior and its dynamic processes. The WWSSN was a key component of VELA Uniform, a Cold War project that was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a branch of the Department of Defense. It was managed by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and then by the U.S. Geological Survey. That agency transferred this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1999.
Each of the 120 stations in the WWSSN had two horizontal seismometers of this sort (one to capture the east-west component of the earth’s motions, and one to capture the north-south component). This example was used Junction City, Tx. It would have been linked to a matched galvanometer (such as 1999.0275.09) and a photographic drum recorder (such as 1999.0275.10). The “Sprengnether Instrument Co.” signature refers to a firm in St. Louis, Mo., that specialized in seismological instruments.
Ref: United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Instrumentation of the World-Wide Seismograph System, Model 10700 (Washington, D.C., 1962).
W.F. Sprengnether Instrument Co., Inc., General Discription (sic) Long Period Horizontal Seismometer ([St. Louis], n.d.).
W.F. Sprengnether Instrument Co., Inc., Sprengnether Horizontal Component Seismometer, Series H ([St. Louis], n.d.).
Ta-Liang Teng, “Seismic Instrumentation,” in Methods of Experimental Physics, vol. 24 part B, Geophysics (1987), pp. 56-58.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1961-1962
maker
Geotechnical Corporation
W. F. Sprengnether Instrument Co.
ID Number
1999.0275.04
catalog number
1999.0275.04
accession number
1999.0275
This refractometer was used in Stanley Cohen’s lab at Stanford University in his research on recombinant DNA. Refractometers measure how light changes velocity as it passes through a substance.
Description (Brief)
This refractometer was used in Stanley Cohen’s lab at Stanford University in his research on recombinant DNA. Refractometers measure how light changes velocity as it passes through a substance. This change is known as the refractive index and it is dependent on the composition of the substance being measured. In the Cohen lab, this refractometer was one of several techniques used to provide evidence that he and his research team had created a recombinant DNA molecule containing DNA from both a bacterium and a frog.
To conduct the analysis, Cohen separated out the molecule he assumed to be recombinant DNA and measured its refractive index. The index for the molecule fell between the known values for frog DNA and bacterial DNA, suggesting that the unknown DNA molecule was a mixture of the two.
For more information on the Cohen/Boyer experiments with recombinant DNA see object 1987.0757.01
Sources:
“Section 9.4.2: Buoyant Density Centrifugation.” Smith, H., ed. The Molecular Biology of Plant Cells. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft796nb4n2/
“Louisiana State University Macromolecular Studies Group How-To Guide: ABBE Zeiss Refractometer.” Pitot, Cécile. Accessed December 2012. http://macro.lsu.edu/howto/Abbe_refractometer.pdf
“Construction of Biologically Functional Bacterial Plasmids In Vitro.” Cohen, Stanley N., Annie C.Y. Chang, Herbert W. Boyer, Robert B. Helling. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. Vol. 70, No. 11. pp.3240–3244. November 1973.
“Replication and Transcription of Eukaryotic DNA in Escherichia coli.” Morrow, John F., Stanley N. Cohen, Annie C.Y. Chang, Herbert W. Boyer, Howard M. Goodman, Robert B. Helling. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences. Vol. 71, No. 5. pp.1743–1747. May 1974.
Accession File
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1946-1953
user
Cohen, Stanley N.
maker
Zeiss
ID Number
1987.0757.28
catalog number
1987.0757.28
accession number
1987.0757
serial number
128646
Berenice Abbott's photograph, Pendulum (Small Arc), is a stop-motion photograph.
Description (Brief)
Berenice Abbott's photograph, Pendulum (Small Arc), is a stop-motion photograph. Although the photographer is more well-known for her 1930s abstracted views of New York City's architecture, she wanted to improve the quality of photography for scientists.
Abbott devised apparatus and techniques to capture various phenomena. Beginning in 1958, she created photographs for the Physical Science Study Committee, a program to reform high school physics teaching. This picture illustrating the swing of a pendulum appeared in 1969 in The Attractive Universe: Gravity and the Shape of Space.
Description
During the 1920s, Berenice Abbott was one of the premier portrait photographers of Paris, her only competitor was the equally well-known Dada Surrealist Man Ray who had served as her mentor and employer before she launched her own career. An American expatriate, Abbott enjoyed the company of some of the great twentieth century writers and artists, photographing individuals such as Jean Cocteau, Peggy Guggenheim and James Joyce. One of the critical elements of Abbott’s portraiture was a desire to neither enhance nor interfere with the sitter. She instead wished to allow the personality of her subject to dictate the form of the photograph, and would often sit with her clients for several hours before she even began to photograph them. This straight-forward approach to photography characterized Abbott’s work for the duration of her career.
Thematically and technically, Abbott’s work can be most closely linked to documentary photographer Eugène Atget (COLL.PHOTOS.000016), who photographed Paris during the early 1900s. Abbott bought a number of his prints the first time she saw them, and even asked him to set some aside that she planned to purchase when she had enough money. After his death in 1927, Abbott took it upon herself to publicize Atget’s work to garner the recognition it deserved. It was partly for this reason she returned to the United States in 1928, hoping to find an American publisher to produce an English-language survey of Atget’s work. Amazed upon her arrival to see the changes New York had undergone during her stay in Paris, and eager to photograph the emerging new metropolis, Abbott decided to pack up her lucrative Parisian portrait business and move back to New York.
The status and prestige she enjoyed in Paris, however, did not carry over to New York. Abbott did not fit in easily with her contemporaries. She was both a woman in a male-dominated field and a documentary photographer in the midst of an American photographic world firmly rooted in Pictorialism. Abbott recalls disliking the work of both photographer Alfred Stieglitz and his then protégé Paul Strand when she first visited their exhibitions in New York. Stieglitz, along with contemporaries such as Ansel Adams and Edward Steichen, tended to romanticize the American landscape and effectively dismissed Abbott’s straight photography as she saw it. Not only was Atget’s work rejected by the Pictorialists, but a series of critical comments she made towards Stieglitz and Pictorialism cost Abbott her professional career as a photographer. Afterwards, she was unable to secure space at galleries, have her work shown at museums or continue the working relationships she had forged with a number of magazine publications.
In 1935, the Federal Art Project outfitted Abbott with equipment and a staff to complete her project to photograph New York City. The benefit of a personal staff and the freedom to determine her own subject matter was unique among federally funded artists working at that time. The resulting series of photographs, which she titled Changing New York, represent some of Abbott’s best-known work. Her photographs of New York remain one of the most important twentieth century pictorial records of New York City. Abbott went on to produce a series of photographs for varied topics, including scientific textbooks and American suburbs. When the equipment was insufficient to meet her photographic needs, as in the case of her series of science photographs, she invented the tools she needed to achieve the desired effect. In the course of doing so, Abbott patented a number of useful photographic aids throughout her career including an 8x10 patent camera (patent #2869556) and a photographer’s jacket. Abbott also spent twenty years teaching photography classes at the New School for Social Research alongside such greats as composer Aaron Copland and writer W.E.B. DuBois.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Abbott’s career was the printing of Eugène Atget’s photographs, one of the few instances in which one well-known photographer printed a large number of negatives made by another well-known photographer. The struggle to get Atget’s photographs the recognition they deserved was similar to Abbott’s efforts to chart her own path by bringing documentary photography to the fore in a Pictorialist dominated America. Though she experienced varying levels of rejection and trials in both efforts, her perseverance placed her in the position she now holds as one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.
The Bernice Abbott collection consists of sixteen silver prints. The photographs represent a range of work Abbott produced during her lifetime, including her early portraiture work in Paris, her Changing New York series, Physics and Route 1, U.S.A. series.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1950s
photographer
Abbott, Berenice
ID Number
PG.69.216.15
catalog number
69.216.15
accession number
288852
This folding case has a wooden base with two cardboard flaps. It is covered with black imitation leather and lined with purple velvet. The case fastens with two snaps marked with the trademark for the Eugene Dietzgen Company. The insides of the snaps are marked: P R Y M (/) 4H.
Description
This folding case has a wooden base with two cardboard flaps. It is covered with black imitation leather and lined with purple velvet. The case fastens with two snaps marked with the trademark for the Eugene Dietzgen Company. The insides of the snaps are marked: P R Y M (/) 4H. The front flap is marked: 1252 PJL. The back of the case is marked: GERMANY (/) U.S. ZONE. Inside the top flap is marked: DIETZGEN (/) POLITEK. The set of instruments appears to be original and complete and includes:
1) 6-3/4" fixed-leg needle-point dividers, marked: DIETZGEN GERMANY.
2) 6-3/8" bow pencil with pen point attachment. One leg is marked: DIETZGEN GERMANY.
3) 5" bow pencil with pen point attachment. One leg is marked: DIETZGEN GERMANY. A 6-1/2" extension bar permits this instrument to function as a beam compass.
4) 5-1/2" black plastic and steel drawing pen marked: DIETZGEN GERMANY. The adjusting screw is numbered by twos from 0 to 8.
5) 3-1/16" black plastic and steel pen handle.
6) 2-1/2" blue screwdriver with German silver handle.
7) 1-1/16" black metal joint tightener.
8) 5/16" German silver thumbtack.
Except as noted, the instruments may be made of a chromium-plated hard alloy. The reference to the American occupation zone after World War II dates this set to between 1945 and 1955. Neither the Politek brand nor model number were mentioned in Dietzgen's 1949 catalog. The Extens-o-Leg compass attachment was advertised in a 1953–1954 catalog for schools, further suggesting that the set was not manufactured until after 1950.
References: Catalog of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 16th ed. (Chicago, 1949); Dietzgen School Catalog (Chicago, 1953–1954), 12.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1950-1955
distributor
Eugene Dietzgen Company
ID Number
1989.0305.03
catalog number
1989.0305.03
accession number
1989.0305
By the mid-20th century, printing adding machines with a block of ten keys sold much more cheaply than full-keyboard machines. Mindful that it was losing sales, Burroughs Adding Machine Company of Detroit set out to manufacture its own ten-key machine.
Description
By the mid-20th century, printing adding machines with a block of ten keys sold much more cheaply than full-keyboard machines. Mindful that it was losing sales, Burroughs Adding Machine Company of Detroit set out to manufacture its own ten-key machine. The Burroughs Patent Division acquired examples and blueprints of a recently introduced British adding machine, the Summit.
This manually operated example of the Summit has a steel case painted gray, a block of 12 number keys (for the 12 digits in Sterling currency), four keys on the right, and a “COR” key on the left. The metal crank on the right has a wooden handle. A place indicator is above the keyboard. The machine allows one to enter numbers up to nine digits long and prints nine-digit totals. The printing mechanism with paper tape is at the back. The paper tape is 6 cm. (2-3/8”) wide, with a serrated edge for tearing it off. A metal plate at the top lifts off for access to the mechanism and the black ribbon. The machine has wheels on the left and the right to advance the platen.
The machine is marked on the front: Summit. It is also marked there: MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. It has serial number: #1885. A red Burroughs Patent Department tag attached to the machine reads: #300.
Compare to 1982.0794.77.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1950
ID Number
1982.0794.76
maker number
#1885
accession number
1982.0794
catalog number
1982.0794.76
This full-keyboard, printing electric bookkeeping machine has a gray metal frame with streamlines and 11 columns of square plastic gray and white color-coded number keys. Left of these are three columns of keys used to denote the date and type of transaction.
Description
This full-keyboard, printing electric bookkeeping machine has a gray metal frame with streamlines and 11 columns of square plastic gray and white color-coded number keys. Left of these are three columns of keys used to denote the date and type of transaction. Possible years are 50 (1950), 51 (1951), and 52 (1952). Right of the number keys is an addition bar and three columns of function keys. The function keys may relate to operations carried out when the carriage is in three different positions. The printing mechanism and wide carriage are behind the keyboard. No stand and no exterior motor are present. A cord extends from the back of the machine.
A red paper tag attached to the object reads: PATENT DEPT. (/) #186. It was model #186 in the collection of the Patent Division of Burroughs Corporation. The machine is marked on the front: Burroughs Sensimatic.
Versions of the Series F were introduced in 1949, 1951, 1952, and 1954.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
maker
Burroughs
ID Number
1982.0794.34
catalog number
1982.0794.34
accession number
1982.0794
This variometer measures slight changes in magnetic declination. The surrounding Helmholtz coil enables its scale value to be determined electrically. It is marked "RUSKA INSTRUMENT CORPORATION HOUSTON TEXAS No. 5733 MADE IN U.S.A." The U.S.
Description
This variometer measures slight changes in magnetic declination. The surrounding Helmholtz coil enables its scale value to be determined electrically. It is marked "RUSKA INSTRUMENT CORPORATION HOUSTON TEXAS No. 5733 MADE IN U.S.A." The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey acquired it in 1957, probably for use during the International Geophysical Year. The U.S. Geological Survey acquired it in 1973 when it assumed responsibility for the geomagnetic program of the federal government, and transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1982.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1957
maker
Ruska Instrument Corporation
ID Number
1982.0671.13b
accession number
1982.0671
catalog number
1982.0671.13b
Two of these leads are 5-1/8" in length and are marked: SSWS MADE U.S.A. U.S. PAT. 1,832,654 (/) 3H EAGLE TURQUOISE ® ELECTRONIC 3H. One lead is 4" long and marked: SSWS MADE U.S.A. U.S. PAT.
Description
Two of these leads are 5-1/8" in length and are marked: SSWS MADE U.S.A. U.S. PAT. 1,832,654 (/) 3H EAGLE TURQUOISE ® ELECTRONIC 3H. One lead is 4" long and marked: SSWS MADE U.S.A. U.S. PAT. 1,832,654 (/) 2H EAGLE TURQUOISE ® ELECTRONIC 2H.
Adolf Pischel of New York City and Paul Pischel of London, England, applied in Germany in 1928 and in the United States in 1929 for patents on a process that made a plastic from "earthy matter," graphite, and Turkey red oil, forming the plastic into pencil leads. They assigned their U.S. patent to the Eagle Pencil Company.
German immigrant Heinrich Berolzheimer opened Eagle Pencil Company as a pencil shop in New York City in 1856, with a factory in Yonkers. By 1880, the firm made mechanical pencils as well as pens and erasers. Its Turquoise line of drawing leads was widely sold in the first half of the 20th century. In 1969 the company changed its name to Berol Corporation, and the Empire Pencil Corporation purchased it in 1986.
These objects were received and are stored with a set of drawing instruments, 1985.0909.01. The set was owned by Harald Trap Friis (1893–1976), a Danish emigrant who became a prominent radio engineer for Bell Labs.
Reference: Adolf Pischel and Paul Pischel, "Process for Manufacturing Rods from Plastic Materials" (U.S. Patent 1,832,654 issued November 17, 1931).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1929-1958
maker
Eagle Pencil Company
ID Number
1985.0909.04
accession number
1985.0909
catalog number
1985.0909.04
This notched band adder is made of steel painted black, gold, and white. It has a steel stylus and a brown leather case. The front of the instrument has eight columns of numbers with a band under each column.
Description
This notched band adder is made of steel painted black, gold, and white. It has a steel stylus and a brown leather case. The front of the instrument has eight columns of numbers with a band under each column. A hook at the top of each column allows carrying and a ninth band allows carrying from the eighth column. Sums as large as nine digits are displayed in round openings above the columns. On the back are eight columns of numbers for doing subtraction. A zeroing bar extends across the bottom of the back (the top of the front).
The firm of Carl Keubler produced adders under the name "Addiator" in Berlin (later West Berlin) from 1920 until the 1980s. This is one of three versions of the Addiator in the Smithsonian collections.
Reference: Martin Reese, Historische Buerowelt, 43 (September 1995).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1955
maker
Addiator G.m.b.H.
ID Number
1989.0325.01
accession number
1989.0325
catalog number
1989.0325.01
After their widespread use during World War One, experts increasingly used psychological tests as a tool to rank and sort people in contexts including (but not limited to) education and employment.
Description
After their widespread use during World War One, experts increasingly used psychological tests as a tool to rank and sort people in contexts including (but not limited to) education and employment. The TAT [Thematic Apperception Test] Summary Record Blank Manual of Directions was written by Pauline G. Vorhaus (Clinical Psychologist, Veterans Administration). The eight-page booklet contains information on purpose, description, instructions for administering the TAT, rules for recording responses, definitions of categories, suggestions for evaluating results, interpretation of categories, and summary. The cover page of the test also included a forward written by Henry A. Murray, who created the TAT. According to historian of science Rebecca Lemov, the test was first developed in 1938 and it “could access apperception, that is, the fantasy life and its fancies, imagination and its secret contents. The test was to be a way of making the invisible visible, the irretrievable retrievable in some manifest form.” For further context, see TAT Summary Record Blank (1983.0168.26).
Reference:
Rebecca Lemov, “X-Rays of Inner Words: The Mid-Twentieth Century American Projective Test Movement,” The Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 47, no. 3 (Summer 2011): 260.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1952
ID Number
1983.0168.25
catalog number
1983.0168.25
accession number
1983.0168
By 1902, dealers like Eugene Dietzgen of Chicago offered sets of several dozen “Copenhagen ship curves” in wood and hard rubber. In their 1904-1905 catalog, Dietzgen added curves of transparent amber. By 1926, transparent celluloid had replaced these materials.
Description
By 1902, dealers like Eugene Dietzgen of Chicago offered sets of several dozen “Copenhagen ship curves” in wood and hard rubber. In their 1904-1905 catalog, Dietzgen added curves of transparent amber. By 1926, transparent celluloid had replaced these materials. The number of curves rose from 45 in 1902 to 121 in 1926 and 1931. This selection of curves in this set matches the description of the 1938 Dietzgen catalog, which lists a set of fifty-six celluloid (not acrylic) curves. Dietzgen offered them through at least 1949. Dietzgen first used the term Clearcite in commerce in 1946, filed for a trademark February 29, 1952, and received the trademark June 23, 1953. Hence the curves are from after that date.
The curves are stored in a wooden case with metal hooks. A mark on a tag on the front of the case reads: DIETZGEN (/) MADE IN U.S.A.
By the 1970s, flexible drawing curves were replacing fixed ones like these.
The objects were given to the Smithsonian in 1986.
The donor, Philip Krupen (1915–2001), was a physicist who graduated B.S. from Brooklyn College in 1935, worked on the development of the proximity fuse during and after World War II, earned a master's degree in physics from George Washington University, and spent a total of thirty-eight years working for the U.S. government before he retired in 1973.
References:
Benjamin Pike, Jr., Pike’s Illustrated Descriptive Catalog, vol. 1, New York, 1856, pp. 40-43. This catalog includes ship curves, but not with the standard numbers used by Keuffel & Esser from at least 1890.
Keuffel & Esser Company, Catalog, New York, 1890, pp. 138-139.
Eugene Dietzgen Company, Catalog, Chicago, 1902.
Eugene Dietzgen Company, Catalog, Chicago, 1905, p. 218.
Eugene Dietzgen Company, Catalog, Chicago, 1910, p. 274. The numbering of ship curves in the 1890, 1902, 1905, and 1910 Dietzgen catalogs is not the same as that adopted by 1926.
Eugene Dietzgen Company, Catalog, Chicago, 1926, pp. 226-227. The numbering of ship curves in this and later Dietzgen catalogs follow a scheme used by Keuffel & Esser at least as early as 1890. This is the same numbering system used on these curves.
Eugene Dietzgen Company, Catalog, Chicago, 1931, pp. 245-246.
Eugene Dietzgen Company, Catalog, Chicago, 1938, pp. 310-311.
Eugene Dietzgen Company, Catalog, Chicago, 1949, pp. 310-311.
TESS, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Registration 0576302.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1955
maker
Eugene Dietzgen Company
ID Number
1986.0790.07
accession number
1986.0790
catalog number
1986.0790.07
This full-keyboard printing electric adding machine adds numbers with as many as 13 digits and prints 13-digit results. It is tan and brown and has 13 columns of square plastic digit keys, with nine keys in each column.
Description
This full-keyboard printing electric adding machine adds numbers with as many as 13 digits and prints 13-digit results. It is tan and brown and has 13 columns of square plastic digit keys, with nine keys in each column. There also are five function keys and bars labeled “+” and “-”. The sides, front, and back of the case are missing. A narrow printing mechanism at the top of the machine has a ribbon and paper tape. It has 15 type bars. The first two print special characters and the rest print digits.
The machine is marked: Burroughs P 402 Elec. (/) A9103-20 (/) Date-Count-Normal (/) Rack #E Shelf 2. It is model #282 from the collection of the Patent Division of Burroughs Corporation.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
maker
Burroughs Adding Machine Company
ID Number
1982.0794.74
catalog number
1982.0794.74
accession number
1982.0794
This small illustrated pamphlet, published by drawing manufacturer VEMCO, gives a history od drawing instruments from the Egyptians to the mid-twentieth century.Currently not on view
Description
This small illustrated pamphlet, published by drawing manufacturer VEMCO, gives a history od drawing instruments from the Egyptians to the mid-twentieth century.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1950
ID Number
1987.0589.11
accession number
1987.0589
catalog number
1987.0589.11
This gray and silver-colored machine has a metal base with a hinged metal cover over the back section. Inside this is a metal and plastic mechanism driving a paper tape. The machine was designed to teach arithmetic and spelling to grade school students.
Description
This gray and silver-colored machine has a metal base with a hinged metal cover over the back section. Inside this is a metal and plastic mechanism driving a paper tape. The machine was designed to teach arithmetic and spelling to grade school students. A plastic window in the lid reveals a question on the paper tape. On the base of the machine there are ten columns of holes; each column is labeled along its side with "+", "-", the digits from 9 to 0 and then the letters from a to z. A student enters answers by moving a lever down the appropriate column to the desired number or letter. A light bulb is on the right of the machine, above the paper tape (entering the correct answer may light up the bulb). A counter is inside the machine and a handle on the side advances the paper tape. A rubber cord with plug extends from the back of the machine. According to the donor, this is an improvement on the machine he demonstrated in Pittsburgh in 1954.
Compare 1981.0997.01.
Reference:
Accession file.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1954
maker
IBM
ID Number
1984.1069.01
accession number
1984.1069
catalog number
1984.1069.01
This five-inch, one-sided white molded plastic slide rule has K, A, D, and L scales on the base. B, CI, and C scales are on one side of the slide, and S, S&T, and T scales are on the other side, which is marked at the left end: Diwa (/) DENMARK.
Description
This five-inch, one-sided white molded plastic slide rule has K, A, D, and L scales on the base. B, CI, and C scales are on one side of the slide, and S, S&T, and T scales are on the other side, which is marked at the left end: Diwa (/) DENMARK. The top edge is beveled and has a scale of inches in red and a scale of centimeters in black. A glass indicator has a hairline and metal edges. A notch covered with clear plastic is on the right end of the base. The right end of the back is marked: No. 601 (/) MADE IN DENMARK. The back is also marked: COOPER-SIMON & CO., INC. (/) TECHNICAL SALES • FIELD ENGINEERS (/) Lehigh 5-2900 (/) 400 EAST 79th STREET • NEW YORK 21, N. Y. A brown leather sleeve has been scratched: PHIL KRUPEN. The previous owner's name is also written inside the case. Compare to 1992.0433.03.
Cooper-Simon, a distributor of ACME electric transformers, Chester cables, AEMCO relays, and various resistance products, presumably handed out this rule to advertise its firm. The Danish slide rule manufacturer, DIWA, was established in 1924 and prospered after World War II. During the postwar era, it often sold model 601 to companies for use as a promotional item. Krupen (1915–2001) was a physicist who graduated B.S. from Brooklyn College in 1935, worked on the development of the proximity fuse during and after World War II, earned a master's degree in physics from George Washington University, and spent a total of 38 years working for the U.S. government before he retired in 1973.
References: Dieter von Jezierski, Slide Rules: A Journey Through Three Centuries, trans. Rodger Shepherd (Mendham, N.J.: Astragal Press, 2000), 77; International Slide Rule Museum, "Miscellaneous Europe," http://sliderulemuseum.com/, with instructions under the directory SR_Library_Europe.htm; accession file.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
maker
Diwa Manufacturing Co.
ID Number
1986.0790.05
catalog number
1986.0790.05
accession number
1986.0790
This is a wooden dummy model of the case of a ten-key printing electric adding machine. It has black plastic keys keys and a frame, but no mechanism. The number keys are in a block with a zero bar below. Left of these are ERROR and REPEAT keys.
Description
This is a wooden dummy model of the case of a ten-key printing electric adding machine. It has black plastic keys keys and a frame, but no mechanism. The number keys are in a block with a zero bar below. Left of these are ERROR and REPEAT keys. Right of these are SUB[()TOTAL, and TOTAL keys, as well as a key stem (without a key) and a black bar. There is a place for a place indicator. A 4-inch carriage is at the back of the machine, and there are four rubber feet.
A red tag attached to the object reads: PATENT DEPT. (/) #161. A metal tag attached to the object reads: DONATED TO (/) The Smithsonian Institution (/) by (/) Burroughs Corporation.
This model, along with 1982.0794.28, was #161 in the collections of the Patent Division of Burroughs Corporation. The shape, placement and color of the function keys are different on this object than on 1982.0794.27.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
maker
Burroughs Adding Machine Company
ID Number
1982.0794.28
accession number
1982.0794
catalog number
1982.0794.28
This printing electric adding machine has a metal case painted a grayish tan and a full keyboard of plastic keys in two shades of tan. It has ten columns of keys, with keys numbered from 1 to 9 in each column.
Description
This printing electric adding machine has a metal case painted a grayish tan and a full keyboard of plastic keys in two shades of tan. It has ten columns of keys, with keys numbered from 1 to 9 in each column. A 12” adjustable carriage is across the back, but no cover piece for the back of the carriage and no cord is present.. Adjustable sheet feeders for printing on pieces of paper are in place. The machine prints ten digits and one special character. Two additional plastic pieces were received with the machine.
The machine was model #260 in the Patent Division of Burroughs Corporation. It is marked across the front above the keyboard: Burroughs. It is marked on a metal tag attached to the bottom: 1880-B. It is marked on white paper tag: Burroughs P401 Elec. (/) #1880B (/) A. Williamson 3-3-54 (/) Developing Model (/) A. Williamson.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1954
maker
Burroughs Corporation
ID Number
1982.0794.62
catalog number
1982.0794.62
accession number
1982.0794

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