Science & Mathematics

Chemical Balance

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.

Kangaroo Puzzle, Once Owned by Olive C. Hazlett

This example of Kangaroo, a set of three puzzles, belonged to Olive C. Hazlett (1890–1974). Hazlett was one of America's leading mathematicians during the 1920s.
Description
This example of Kangaroo, a set of three puzzles, belonged to Olive C. Hazlett (1890–1974). Hazlett was one of America's leading mathematicians during the 1920s. She taught at Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Illinois, after which she moved to Peterborough, New Hampshire. This and other of her puzzles and books of puzzles were collected from a community of Discalced Carmelite brothers who had lived in New Hampshire and who had befriended Hazlett there.
Kangaroo was made by the Douglass Novelty Company of Detroit, Michigan and sold for ten cents. It is listed in American Game Collectors Association’s The Game Catalog: U.S. Games Through 1950 (8th ed., Oct. 1998, p. 40) as having been made in about 1930.
The box contains a shiny orange cardboard playing board and twelve, six gold and six silver, small blank cardboard discs. The directions for the three different puzzles are printed on the inside of the cover of the box. The playing board is square and has small circles and squares marked on it. There are also two rows of number marked, one runs from 1 to 10 and the other runs from 1 to 8. The directions for each puzzle specify a starting position, the rules for moving the discs (including jumping), and the required final position of discs.
The first puzzle was a popular puzzle described by W. W. Rouse Ball in his Mathematical Recreations and Essays. The other two are related to another puzzle described by Rouse Ball and ascribed to P. G. Tait, a 19th-century Scottish mathematician remembered for his work in knot theory.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930
maker
Douglass Novelty Company, Inc.
ID Number
2015.0027.07
accession number
2015.0027
catalog number
2015.0027.07

Addometer Associated with Joseph Hirshhorn

This eight-wheeled stylus-operated adding machine has metal wheels and frame. The wheels each have ten holes around the edge. The two rightmost are white, the next three are red, and the next three are white.
Description
This eight-wheeled stylus-operated adding machine has metal wheels and frame. The wheels each have ten holes around the edge. The two rightmost are white, the next three are red, and the next three are white. All the wheels are labeled around the outside with digits for use in subtraction and around the inside with digits for use in addition. A steel stylus and a clearing bar fit into the right side. The top edge of the instrument has an 11-inch scale of equal parts, divided to sixteenths of an inch. The machine was made by the Reliable Typewriter & Adding Machine Company of Chicago, Illinois. The machine fits in a black case labeled: ADDOMETER.
This example was used by financier and philanthropist Joseph Hirshhorn and was given by his widow, Olga Hirshhorn, to the Hirshhorn Museum and Scuplture Garden, a branch of the Smithsonian. For other Addometers, see 1996.0220.01 and 2010.0215.01.
References:
Typewriter Topics, vol. 66, August, 1927, pp. 36-37 (announced as coming in September - $10.00).
Typewriter Topics, vol. 72, June, 1929, p. 29 (cost $15.00).
Office Appliances, vol. 87, January, 1948, p. 138, 182 (price $12.95).
Office Appliances, vol. 98, Oct., 1953, p. 233 (price $14.95).
Accession file.
date made
ca 1927
maker
Reliable Typewriter & Adding Machine Corporation
ID Number
2016.3083.01
nonaccession number
2016.3083
catalog number
2016.3083.01

Draft-Aid Designer's Template

This clear plastic rectangular template has a scale of inches from 1 to five inches along the left side, divided to 1/32 inch. It has an unequal scale of degrees along the top and right side which can be used as a rectangular protractor.
Description
This clear plastic rectangular template has a scale of inches from 1 to five inches along the left side, divided to 1/32 inch. It has an unequal scale of degrees along the top and right side which can be used as a rectangular protractor. Cut out of the template are seven rows of figures. The first row has ten squares, ranging in size from 3/4 inch on a side down to 1/8 inch on a side. The next two rows have 19 circles ranging from 1/16 inch in diameter up to 1 inch in diameter. The fourth row has eight hexagons, the fifth row six rectangles, the seventh row an arrow and three ovals and the eighth row five equilateral triangles. In addition there is an arc of a circle, a star, two pointed figures, and an additional small circle.
The instrument fits in a tan paper envelope.
According to both a printed and a penciled mark on the object, it cost $1.00. The donor recalls that he purchased the device while he was working on as a free-lance programmer during his student days at Purdue University.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1964-1965
ID Number
2014.3067.08
nonaccession number
2014.3067
catalog number
2014.3067.08

Dietzgen Limb Protractor

This German silver protractor is in the shape of a quarter-circle. It is divided by half-degrees and marked by tens from 0° to 90°. Flat bars extend on both sides of the protractor. A movable arm extends from the vertex of the quadrant.
Description
This German silver protractor is in the shape of a quarter-circle. It is divided by half-degrees and marked by tens from 0° to 90°. Flat bars extend on both sides of the protractor. A movable arm extends from the vertex of the quadrant. A tab is cut out from this limb to permit reading the angle markings. The arm is secured by a brass thumbscrew that is near the origin point for the angle markings. The protractor is noticeably rusted and tarnished.
There is a signature on the bottom edge: E. D. – Co. (/) NEW YORK & CHICAGO. Around 1880, Eugene Dietzgen emigrated from Germany and became a sales distributor for Keuffel & Esser in New York. In 1885, he began to sell mathematical instruments on his own in Chicago. In 1893, his firm started manufacturing instruments under the name Eugene Dietzgen Company. However, this protractor was not advertised in Dietzgen catalogs that were published between 1902 and 1947.
Leslie Leland Locke (1875–1943) originally owned this protractor. A student at Grove City College, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1896 and a master's degree in 1900. He taught mathematics at Michigan State College, Adelphi College, and Brooklyn College and its Technical High School. He was interested in Peruvian quipu, mysterious and ancient systems of knotted strings used to store and communicate information and data. He donated his collection of early calculating machines to the Smithsonian and his early American textbooks to the University of Michigan.
Reference: Louis C. Karpinski, "Leslie Leland Locke," Science n.s., 98, no. 2543 (24 September 1943): 274–275.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1900
maker
Eugene Dietzgen Company
ID Number
2011.0129.01
accession number
2011.0129
catalog number
2011.0129.01

Pickett N3-ES Duplex Slide Rule

This ten-inch aluminum duplex linear slide rule is coated with Pickett's distinctive "eye saver" yellow coloring. The magnifying indicator is made of nylon (the "N" in the model number) with white plastic sides.
Description
This ten-inch aluminum duplex linear slide rule is coated with Pickett's distinctive "eye saver" yellow coloring. The magnifying indicator is made of nylon (the "N" in the model number) with white plastic sides. The front top of the base has two extended square root scales and K and A scales. The front bottom of the base has D, DI, and three extended cube root scales. The front of the slide has B, ST, S, two extended T, CI, and C scales. The left of the slide is marked: PickETT (/) MODEL N 3-ES (/) POWER LOG EXPONENTIAL (/) LOG LOG DUAL BASE. The right of the slide is marked: ALL METAL (/) SLIDE RULES (/) PickETT (/) MADE IN U.S.A. The red printing on the front of the rule has faded considerably.
The back top of the base has LL0, LL1, and DF scales. The back bottom of the base has D, LL2, and LL3 scales. The back of the slide has CF, CIF, Ln, L, CI, and C scales. The left of the slide is marked: COPYRIGHT 1960© (/) PATENT APPLIED FOR. The right of the slide bears the third Pickett logo on the instrument. The burgundy leather case is partially lined with blue velvet to protect the magnifier and has another logo (in gold) below the slot for the case's flap. The back of the case has a ring on the back for a belt strap, but the strap is missing.
This example of Model N3 was owned and used by the mathematician and theoretical computer scientist, Harley Flanders. It is identical to 1980.0097.01 except for its color and magnifying indicator. Pickett switched from glass to nylon indicators in 1958 and used this logo from 1964 to 1975. Pickett also moved from Alhambra, Calif., to Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1964. The mention on the instrument of a patent application may refer to a patent for a case issued to John W. Pickett in 1960. Pickett was the son of company founder Ross C. Pickett and served as president from 1957 to 1967. For early company history, see 1979.0601.02.
References: Peter M. Hopp, "Slide Rule Scales," Slide Rules: Their History, Models, and Makers (Mendham, N.J.: Astragal Press, 1999), 285–287; International Slide Rule Museum, "Pickett All-Metal Slide Rules," http://sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Dates.htm#Pickett; John W. Pickett, "Slide Rule Case" (U.S. Patent D187,632 issued April 5, 1960).
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1965
date received
2009
user
Flanders, Harley
maker
Pickett Industries
ID Number
2009.0019.01
accession number
2009.0019
catalog number
2009.0019.01

Flash Drive, On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences

This flash or thumb drive has a silver-colored metal case with a metal handle. A cover at the opposite end fromthe handle protects connection, which fits in a USB port.
Description
This flash or thumb drive has a silver-colored metal case with a metal handle. A cover at the opposite end fromthe handle protects connection, which fits in a USB port. A mark on the drive reads: OEIS (/) On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.
The object was collected at the January, 2014, Joint Mathematics Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2014
ca 2014
ID Number
2014.3126.01
catalog number
2014.3126.01
nonaccession number
2014.3126

Babcock cream testing bottle

Babcock test bottles, featuring a long, thin neck with graduations from 0-50 were designed to test the fat content in cream.The late-19th-century interest in nutrition, unadulterated foods, and truth in labeling led to a demand for a simple test to determine milk quality.
Description (Brief)
Babcock test bottles, featuring a long, thin neck with graduations from 0-50 were designed to test the fat content in cream.
The late-19th-century interest in nutrition, unadulterated foods, and truth in labeling led to a demand for a simple test to determine milk quality. At the time, milk was sold by weight. This led some farmers to water down their product or skim cream from the top, punishing honest farmers and creating an unpredictable quality in milk for the public. The University of Wisconsin tasked Professor Stephen M. Babcock (1843–1931) with finding a solution to this problem, and in 1890 he announced the Babcock test.
Earlier tests could accurately determine milkfat levels but were too lengthy and expensive to be widely implemented. Babcock’s test delivered a simple, time- and cost-effective solution that dairymen quickly adopted. The test not only provided a reliable way to determine fair prices for milk based on quality, but it also became a useful tool for animal breeding. By keeping consistent records of each cow’s milkfat production, farmers could breed their herds for improved milk.
As the test’s popularity grew, so did the demand for cheap but accurate graduated test bottles, pipettes, and graduated cylinders to carry out the test. The test required a milk sample of a standard weight, to which the tester added precise amount of sulfuric acid. The acid dissolved all of the milk constituents except for the fat, which floated to the surface. After heating and several spins in a centrifuge, the fat became trapped in the neck of the bottle. The tester could determine the percentage by reading graduations between which the fat fell.
Sources:
Babcock, S.M. 1890. “A New Method for the Estimation of Fat in Milk, Especially Adapted to Creameries and Cheese Factories.” In Annual Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin for the Year... University of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station.
Hart, E.B. “Stephen Moulton Babcock.” Journal of Nutrition 37, no. 1 (1949): 1–7.
Hunziker, Otto Frederick. “Specifications and Directions for Testing Milk and Cream for Butterfat.” Journal of Dairy Science 1, no. 1 (1917): 38–44.
Rosenfeld, Louis. Four Centuries of Clinical Chemistry. CRC Press, 1999.
Shaw, Roscoe H. Chemical Testing of Milk and Cream. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1917.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1890
ID Number
2014.0223.05
catalog number
2014.0223.05
accession number
2014.0223

DigitalEd Brochure and Smartphone Grip Stand

These objects are from DigitalEd, a spin-off company of Maplesoft, a company that provides mathematics-based software for educators, engineers, and researchers. DigitalEd provides online STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courseware.
Description
These objects are from DigitalEd, a spin-off company of Maplesoft, a company that provides mathematics-based software for educators, engineers, and researchers. DigitalEd provides online STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courseware. They partnered with the Mathematical Association of America to develop placement testing and assessment products and course content.
The brochure, titled “The Future of Online Education,” advertises their online education products.
The circular-shaped collapsible smartphone grip stand, also known as a “PopSocket,” has a blue background with the DigitalEd logo in white text. On the back is a 3M adhesive disk for attaching it to the phone.
These objects were collected at the Joint Mathematics Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America held in Baltimore, Maryland in January 2019.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2019
ID Number
2019.3004.03
nonaccession number
2019.3004
catalog number
2019.3004.03

Integrator, LASICO Model 130-V

This mechanical integrator has a metal framework painted off-white that carries two guide wheels, two reference guides (one for moment of inertia and the other for moment of area), and a tracer arm with two tracer points. The guide wheels fit into a metal rail.
Description
This mechanical integrator has a metal framework painted off-white that carries two guide wheels, two reference guides (one for moment of inertia and the other for moment of area), and a tracer arm with two tracer points. The guide wheels fit into a metal rail. Two reference guides also fit into the rail and a metal counter weight fits into the framework, resting on the other side of the rail.
All the pieces of the instrument other than the rail fit into a leather-covered wooden case. Labeled photographs of designer Maxmilian Berktold and Susan Jen are inside of the case, with labels. The rail (2011.0043.04.1)is longer than the case is wide (it measures 77 cm. w. x 5 cm. d. x 1.3 cm. h.), and is stored separately.
There also are pamphlets entitled “The Lasico Mechanical Integrator” (2011.0043.04.2) and “Mathematical Engineering Instruments,” (2011.0043.04.3) as well as a leaflet entitled “LASICO Mechanical Integrators” (2011.0043.04.4) This instrument is most like one shown in the leaflet, which dates from 1980.
The model 130-V mechanical integrator had a catalog price of $1500.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1982
maker
Los Angeles Scientific Instrument Company
ID Number
2011.0043.04
accession number
2011.0043
catalog number
2011.0043.04

Uarco Rule

This two-sided rule made by Uarco Incorporated has its original manila paper sleeve. The front of the rule has a silver background with black markings and the back has a black background with silver marking. The front is marked with two scales.
Description
This two-sided rule made by Uarco Incorporated has its original manila paper sleeve. The front of the rule has a silver background with black markings and the back has a black background with silver marking. The front is marked with two scales. Along the top edge, the 16 inch length is divided into 16th of an inch spaces. The bottom edge is marked with a 160 space scale divided into tenths of an inch. The back also has two scales, a 50 centimeter metric scale divided into millimeters along the top edge and a 16 inch scale divided into 6ths and 12ths along the bottom edge.
The rule was used by museum staff to mark out lines of typed data and to confirm character and line spacing on optical character recognition (OCR) typed pages.
In 1975 the museum began automating its accession records. Information from these records was typed on an IBM Selectric typewriter using special paper designed for OCR scanning and an OCR-A type font element. Each page started with a formatted unique number and each line of data started with a 5-digit code that identified the type of data and the line number associated with it. (e.g. 11001 identified the data as the donor name on line 1; 11002 would identify a second donor name.)
If there was a line of data on an OCR typed page that was not to be scanned, a black pen was used to draw a horizontal line through the center of the 5-digit line code. The OCR scanner would ignore any data line if it detected a 5-space black line. This rule was used to draw an accurate line.
To ensure accurate scans, the data had to be precisely spaced both horizontally and vertically. This rule was used to check the number of spaces between the line code and the start of the data, the space between the OCR characters, as well as the vertical distance between data lines. Data entry workers could reinsert typed pages into the typewriter to correct typographical errors (using the Selectric’s correction tape) or to add data lines at the bottom of a page. The rule was used to confirm the horizontal and vertical spacing accuracy of these edits.
Once all editing was completed, the OCR pages were scanned and copied to 9-track magnetic reel tape by a third party vendor, and then processed on the Smithsonian’s Honeywell mainframe computer.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Uarco Incorporated
ID Number
2017.0318.02
accession number
2017.0318
catalog number
2017.0318.02

Microscope

Drum microscope with push-pull focus, sub-stage mirror in the cylindrical base, and wooden box with accessories.Currently not on view
Description
Drum microscope with push-pull focus, sub-stage mirror in the cylindrical base, and wooden box with accessories.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
19th century
ID Number
2009.0116.03
catalog number
2009.0116.03
accession number
2009.0116

Friden Model CH10 Calculating Machine

In 1936, the young Friden Calculating Machine Company not only moved from Oakland, California, to a new factory in San Leandro, but introduced several new models.
Description
In 1936, the young Friden Calculating Machine Company not only moved from Oakland, California, to a new factory in San Leandro, but introduced several new models. These included the manually operated H8 (with eight columns of keys) and H10 (with ten columns of keys), as well as the electrically operated F8 and F10. This machine matches the description of the H8, although a mark at the front of the base reads: CH-8-50004. If this is an H8, the serial number dates it to 1936.
The slightly greenish black machine is largely of metal with plastic keys, a wooden handle on the operating crank on the right side, and rubber around the joints. The 8 x 9 x 17 device has eight columns of color-coded keys for entering numbers. At the back, on the moveable carriage, are a nine-digit revolution register and a seventeen-digit result register. Rotating decimal marker rods separate the columns of keys and the registers on the carriage have sliding decimal markers. These registers also have zeroing rods on the right of the carriage. The mechanism of the machine is a modified form of stepped drum.
A mark on both sides reads: FRIDÉN. A mark on the back at the bottom reads: MADE IN U.S.A. The dimensions depend on the position of the carriage.
Compare 1982.0243.01, and electrically operated C10 from about the same year.
According to the donor, this calculating machine was found in a home that once belonged to Smithsonian Secretary Charles G. Abbot (1872-1973), with documents and other objects that once belonged to Abbot.
References:
Accession File.
American Office Machines Research Service, III, especially Sections 4.3 and 4.31,1938.
Friden Age List, Photo-Reprint by Office Machine Americana, Lewiston, Idaho, p. 2.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1936
maker
Friden Calculating Machine Company, Inc.
ID Number
2019.0292.01
accession number
2019.0292
catalog number
2019.0292.01

Grant Calculating Machine, Centennial Model

In 1876 the Massachusetts inventor and entrepreneur George B.
Description
In 1876 the Massachusetts inventor and entrepreneur George B. Grant displayed a calculating machine similar to this one, as well as a difference engine of his design, at the Centennial Exhibition, a world’s fair held in Philadelphia.
The barrel-type, non-printing machine has a rectangular wooden base, cut out to allow for the motion of a set of wheels that rotates on a shaft near the bottom. This shaft is linked to a larger upper cylinder by gears so that the wheels and the cylinder turn simultaneously when a handle at the right end of the upper cylinder is rotated. The frame for the instrument consists of hollow discs at opposite ends of the base, which are connected to the two shafts already mentioned, and a third shaft which carries a set of eighteen spring claws that link to the gears of the wheels.
Part of the upper cylinder has a metal collar that can be set at any of eight positions on the cylinder with a locking pin. This collar supports eight movable rings. Each ring has an adding pin and a stud on it which may be set at any of ten positions, labeled by the digits from 0 to 9. The lower cylinder has one group of ten recording wheels on it, each provided with thirty teeth. The digits from 0 to 9 are stamped three times around each recording wheel. The spring claws fit the gears of the first set of recording wheels. If a claw is pushed down, it engages the gear of a recording wheel, causing it to rotate. Studs on the wheel lead to carrying by engaging the next claw over. A second group of eight recording wheels, each wheel having thirty teeth, counts turns of the handle, recording the multiplier. These wheels are not shown on cuts of the machine shown at the Centennial.
A flat disk at the end of a lever on the left side serves as a brake on the operating wheels, indicating when the operating crank has been turned through one revolution.
A mark inscribed on the disc on the left side reads: PATENTED (/) JULY 16 1872 APRIL 29 1873 (/) GEO.B.GRANT. A mark inscribed on the top of that ring reads: 12 (/) 77
Compare MA.310645. It has longer cylinders and no mechanism for recording the multiplier. For a related, later U S. patent model, see MA.311940.
References:
George B. Grant, “Improvement in Calculating Machines,” U.S. Patent 138245 (April 29, 1873).
George B. Grant, "Improvement in Calculating-Machine," U.S. Patent 129,335 (July 18, 1872).
George B. Grant, “On a New Difference Engine,” American Journal of Science, ser. 3, vol. 1 (August 1871), pp. 113–118.
George B. Grant, “A New Calculating Machine,” American Journal of Science, ser. 3, vol. 8 (1874), pp. 277–284.
L. Leland Locke, “George Barnard Grant,” Dictionary of American Biography, vol. 7, New York: Scribners, 1931, pp. 487–488.
Robert K. Otnes, “Calculators by George B. Grant,” Historische Buerowelt, no. 19, October 1987, pp. 15–17.
Accession files 118852 and 155183.
George B. Grant, “The Calculating Machine,” Boston: Albert J. Wright, Printer, 1878.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1877
maker
Grant, George B.
ID Number
2016.0165.01
accession number
2016.0165
catalog number
2016.0165.01

American Mathematical Society Anniversary Lapel Pin

This pin honors the 125th anniversary of the American Mathematical Society.
Description
This pin honors the 125th anniversary of the American Mathematical Society. It is attached to paper card and in a clear plastic bag.
The pin was distributed at the January, 2014, Joint Mathematics Meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2014
ca 2014
ID Number
2014.3126.04
nonaccession number
2014.3126
catalog number
2014.3126.04

Pen Advertising WebAssign

This ballpoint pen was collected at the January, 2014, Joint Mathematics Meetingof the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. It advertises the computerized homework and grading program WebAssign.Currently not on view
Description
This ballpoint pen was collected at the January, 2014, Joint Mathematics Meetingof the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. It advertises the computerized homework and grading program WebAssign.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2014
ca 2014
ID Number
2014.3126.03
nonaccession number
2014.3126
catalog number
2014.3126.03

Style E No. 1 Archarena Combination Game Board Once Owned by Olive C. Hazlett

This cloth bag includes pieces for the No. 1 Archarena combination game board made by the Carrom Company of Luddington, Michigan. There is no game board, nor does the bag include two long cues included as part of the game.In the bag are thirty wooden rings.
Description
This cloth bag includes pieces for the No. 1 Archarena combination game board made by the Carrom Company of Luddington, Michigan. There is no game board, nor does the bag include two long cues included as part of the game.
In the bag are thirty wooden rings. Some are painted green (12 rings), red (12 rings), or black (one ring). Five are uncolored. Also in the bag are fifteen paper discs numbered from 1 to 15, ten small wooden tenpins about the size of chess pieces, three wooden spinning tops, one collapsible dice box, two wooden dice, three wooden yellow discs that fit in holes in the rings, three wooden green discs of the same size, one book of rules, one card for recording "pin scoring", a cardboard leaflet describing Carrom bridge tables and giving rules for ten pins (this leaflet may serve as a backstop for playing tenpins), and a tag describing the equipment. Also listed on the tag are fifty-seven games that could be played on the board.
According to the company web site, the Style D No. 2 board was made from 1902 to 1941 and the Style E from 1899 to 1939. The company was called Carrom Company from 1914 to 1939. The instructions list copyrights of 1898, 1899, 1900, and 1901. A number on the back page of the rules is 330, indicating rules printed in March of 1930. Hence the date 1930 assigned to the object.
The bag of game pieces was once owned by the mathematician Olive C. Hazlett. For related objects, see transactions 1998.0314 and 2015.3004.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930
maker
Carrom Company
ID Number
2015.0027.16
accession number
2015.0027
catalog number
2015.0027.16

Keuffel and Esser Deci-Lon Slide Rule

This Keuffel and Esser Deci-Lon slide rule is a model 68 1100 with 10-inch scales. The rule is made of a shatterproof synthetic material while the indicator is made of clear plastic with metal edges. Markings are in red and black.
Description
This Keuffel and Esser Deci-Lon slide rule is a model 68 1100 with 10-inch scales. The rule is made of a shatterproof synthetic material while the indicator is made of clear plastic with metal edges. Markings are in red and black. The front face is printed with 13 scales: Sq1, Sq2, DF, CF, CIF, L, CI, C, D, Ln0, Ln1, Ln2, Ln3. The reverse face is also printed with 13 scales: Ln-3, Ln-2, Ln-1, Ln-0, A, B, T, SRT, S, C, D, DI, and K scales. Printed on the reverse face and located on the right side of the lower rail is the serial number 178687 and located on the left-side of the center rail, made in U.S.A. When not in use, it is stored in an orange, stitched leather case with belt carrier. An imprint of the donor’s last name can be detected on the front of the case under the model name.
The donor purchased this slide rule from the Cornell University bookstore in September 1969. He used it in his coursework for physics engineering as well as nuclear engineering. After earning a master’s degree in nuclear engineering, he served for 42 years in the U.S. Navy.
References:
http://www.mccoys-kecatalogs.com/KECatalogs/1962/1962kecatp10.htm
http://www.mccoys-kecatalogs.com/KECatalogs/1967/1967kecatp12.htm
http://www.sliderules.info/collection/10inch/020/1025-decilon.htm
Accession file.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1969
maker
Keuffel & Esser Co.
ID Number
2018.0283.02
accession number
2018.0283
catalog number
2018.0283.02

Noisemaker Distributed on Pi Day, March 14, 2015

Many Americans now write dates in numerical form, with the first digits for the month, the second for the day of the month, and the third for the year. Hence 3/14/15 represents March 14, 2015.
Description
Many Americans now write dates in numerical form, with the first digits for the month, the second for the day of the month, and the third for the year. Hence 3/14/15 represents March 14, 2015. When dates are written in this manner, the digits can be compared to the irrational number pi, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. This number is roughly 3, more precisely 3.14, and more precisely still 3.1415926.
Since at least 1988, some mathematics educators in the United States have celebrated March 14 as Pi Day. Celebrations were especially intense in 2015, because 3.1415 includes digits of the year as well as the month and day. This noisemaker was sounded at the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics Meeting in Washington, DC, at 9:26 on March 14, 2015.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2015
ID Number
2015.3169.03
nonaccession number
2015.3169
catalog number
2015.3169.03

Addometer

This eight-wheeled stylus-operated adding machine has metal wheels and frame. The wheels each have ten holes around the edge. The two rightmost are white, the next three are red, and the next three are white.
Description
This eight-wheeled stylus-operated adding machine has metal wheels and frame. The wheels each have ten holes around the edge. The two rightmost are white, the next three are red, and the next three are white. All the wheels are labeled around the outside with digits for use in subtraction and around the inside with digits for use in addition. A steel stylus and a clearing bar fit into the right side. The top edge of the instrument has an 11-inch scale of equal parts, divided to sixteenths of an inch. The machine was made by the Reliable Typewriter & Adding Machine Company of Chicago, Illinois.
The instrument was purchased by Smithsonian curator Audrey B. Davis from Greybird Enterprises in Taneytown, Md., in 1990 for $45.00.
For a related accession, see 2010.0214. For another Addometer, see 1996.0220.01
References:
Typewriter Topics, vol. 66, August, 1927, pp. 36-37 (announced as coming in September - $10.00).
Typewriter Topics, vol. 72, June, 1929, p. 29 (cost $15.00).
Office Appliances, vol. 87, January, 1948, p. 138, 182 (price $12.95).
Office Appliances, vol. 98, Oct., 1953, p. 233 (price $14.95). Accession file.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1950
maker
Reliable Typewriter & Adding Machine Corporation
ID Number
2010.0215.01
catalog number
2010.0215.01
accession number
2010.0215

Geometric Model, Surface of Revolution Produced by a 3D Printer

This red plastic 3D printed model is a cylinder with a portion cut out of it. The inner surface is in the shape of the curve y = 1 + x2, rotated about the y-axis.The object was distributed at a workshop on 3D printing at the MathFest meeting in Washington, D.C., in August 2015.
Description
This red plastic 3D printed model is a cylinder with a portion cut out of it. The inner surface is in the shape of the curve y = 1 + x2, rotated about the y-axis.
The object was distributed at a workshop on 3D printing at the MathFest meeting in Washington, D.C., in August 2015. It was given out in connection with a paper by Lila Roberts of Clayton State University entitled "I Can Touch the Math!" Objects 2015.3169.03 and 2015.3169.04 were collected at the same session.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
2015
maker
Roberts, Lila
ID Number
2015.3169.06
nonaccession number
2015.3169
catalog number
2015.3169.06

F. W. Starr Drawing Instrument

This large ferrous metal object, painted black, has four curved legs and an indented central support that holds a flat slide. Moving the slide rotates two linked steel bars at the front (any scribe attached to these bars that would actually draw a curve is missing).
Description
This large ferrous metal object, painted black, has four curved legs and an indented central support that holds a flat slide. Moving the slide rotates two linked steel bars at the front (any scribe attached to these bars that would actually draw a curve is missing). A long metal handle with a brass spring and knob at the front moves above the slide. Its motion is controlled by a projection into a curved crosswise indentation, and controls the motion of the slide in the central support and the rotating bars.
A mark on the handle reads: STARR. A mark on the handle at the point of the crosswise indentation reads: PATD JAN 29 95. A metal tag attached to the top of the handle at the back reads: SOLD BY (/) THE (/) HISTORICAL (/) PUBLISHING (/) CO. (/) DAYTON, OHIO.
On January 29, 1895, Ferdinand W. Starr of Springfield, Ohio, was granted patent number 533,095 for his improvement to drawing instruments. His invention, he said, would draw parallel lines, angles, circles, ellipses, and more. Use of Starr’s patent by The Historical Publishing Co. of Dayton was the subject of patent infringement litigation in 1912 and 1913. Starr also used the patent in the design of a smaller ellipsograph that was sold in the early twentieth century by Queen and Company of Philadelphia and by Eugene Dietzgen Company of Chicago.
F. W. Starr was born in Germany in 1846, immigrating to the United States when he was an infant. According to the 1900 census records, he was the manager of a cutting machine, lived in Springfield, Ohio, with his wife of 20 years, Alice, and their five children. He received two other patents, in 1901 for a cutting instrument, and 1904 for a machine for cutting curved pieces. He died in 1938 at the age of 92.
This example of Starr’s instrument was found unprocessed in the Engineering collections and transferred to Mathematics in the early 1980s.
References:
Ferdinand W. Starr, “Drawing-Instrument,” U.S. Patent 533095, applied for December 23, 1893, granted January 29, 1895.
“Starr v. Houser et al” Federal Reporter, Saint Paul: West Publishing, 1912, pp. 730-732.
“Houser v. Starr,” Federal Reporter, St. Paul: West Publishing, 1913, pp. 264-275.
“The Queen-Starr Ellipsograph,” The Railway Age, vol. 39 #6, February 10, 1905, p. 202.
Catalogue of Eugene Dietzgen Company, Chicago: Dietzgen, 1907-1908.
Biographical information about Starr may be gleaned from sources in ancestry.com
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2019.3036.01
nonaccession number
2019.3036
catalog number
2019.3036.01
patent number
533095

Puzzle Once Owned by Olive C. Hazlett, The Famous and Baffling Checker Board

This paper puzzle has fourteen cardboard pieces that can be arranged in different ways to form an 8 x 8 checkerboard. The pieces fit in a cardboard box.
Description
This paper puzzle has fourteen cardboard pieces that can be arranged in different ways to form an 8 x 8 checkerboard. The pieces fit in a cardboard box. Pencil marks on the pieces number them from 1 to 14.
The lid of the box indicates that there were over seventy-eight different solutions. A sticker on the inside of the lid indicates that 85 solutions were known and that Vasen Industries of Davenport, Iowa would pay $5.00 for any new solution. A mark on the lid of the box reads: THE FAMOUS and BAFFLING (/) CHECKER BOARD (/) PUZZLE (/) 15c. A mark inside the lid reads: THE VASEN MFG. COMPANY (/) Davenport, Iowa
According to Slocum and Botermans, "The first checkerboard puzzle seems to have originated in 1880, when a certain Henry Luers obtained a U.S. patent for a 'Sectional Checkerboard', consisting of fifteen differently shaped pieces of complete squares of a checkerboard."
According to newspaper records, the Vasen Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1927. It apparently was still in business in 1964.
Associated with the mathematician Olive C. Hazlett. For related objects, see acquisitions 1998.0314 and 2015.3004.
References:
Jerry Slocum and Jack Botermans, Puzzles Old and New How to Make and Solve Them, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986, p. 14.
The Davenport Democrat and Leader, Davenport, Iowa, May 22, 1927, p. 15.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1926
mid-twentieth century
maker
Vasen Manufacturing Company
ID Number
2015.0027.12
accession number
2015.0027
catalog number
2015.0027.12

Cylindrical Numeral Frame or Abacus

This numeral frame is in the shape of a cylinder, with wooden discs at each end ten straight metal bars forming the sides. Each bar carries ten beads. The color of the beads is faded.
Description
This numeral frame is in the shape of a cylinder, with wooden discs at each end ten straight metal bars forming the sides. Each bar carries ten beads. The color of the beads is faded. There might once of been green beads along two wires, orange beads along the next two wire, uncolored beads along the next wire, and then once again green beads along two wires, orange beads along the next two wires, and uncolored beads along the final wire. A stand, which would allow the cylinder to turn, is missing.
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
2014.3117.02
nonaccession number
2014.3117
catalog number
2014.3117.02

Microscope

The Universal microscope that Bausch & Lomb introduced in 1884 was similar to the popular Investigator but larger and heavier and equipped with several new features. The basic stand with case cost $55; with two objectives and camera lucida it cost $80. This example of that sort.
Description
The Universal microscope that Bausch & Lomb introduced in 1884 was similar to the popular Investigator but larger and heavier and equipped with several new features. The basic stand with case cost $55; with two objectives and camera lucida it cost $80. This example of that sort. It is a compound monocular with coarse and fine focus, bullseye condenser attached to the body, large circular mechanical stage, inclination joint, sub-stage condenser and iris diaphragm, sub-stage two-sided mirror, and tri-leg base. The inscription on the stage reads “BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL CO.” That on the arm reads “PAT. OCT. 3 1876.”
Ref: Bausch & Lomb, Microscopes, Objectives and Accessories (Rochester, N.Y., 1884), pp. 20-22.
Ernst Gundlach, “Microscopes,” U.S. Patent 182,919 (Oct. 3, 1876).
Julius Wilhelm Behrens, The Microscope in Botany (Boston, 1885), pp. 21-22 and pl. xi.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1876-1884
maker
Bausch & Lomb
ID Number
2009.0116.15
catalog number
2009.0116.15
accession number
2009.0116

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