Vannevar Bush's Profile Tracer

Description:

This experimental instrument for land surveying consists of a mechanism in a wooden box that is suspended between two wooden wheels with rubber tires. The wheels are aligned as in a bicycle, with the box in between. There is a roll of paper mounted on top of the box. If one runs the wheels over a surface, the combined action of a servo-mechanism and an integrator produce a profile of the land traversed which is plotted on the paper. The engineer Vannevar Bush received a patent for this instrument in 1912, and it was the subject of the master's degree dissertation he wrote at Tufts University the next year. Servo-mechanisms, integrators, and the graphical display of results played a major role in several computing instruments Bush later designed. He also is remembered for ideas about information retrieval that inspired later thinkers to develop what is now called hypertext.

Date Made: 1912

Maker: Bush, Vannevar

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States: Massachusetts

Subject: Mathematics

Subject:

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Mathematics, Mechanical Integrators and Analyzers, Science & Mathematics, Measuring & Mapping

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Vannevar Bush

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: MA.317853.01Accession Number: 317853Catalog Number: 317853.01

Object Name: drawing instrument

Physical Description: metal (frame, mechanism material)rubber (wheels material)wood (mechanism material)paper (mechanism material)glass (mechanism material)Measurements: overall: 32 cm x 156 cm x 55 cm; 12 5/8 in x 61 7/16 in x 21 5/8 in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-64bc-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1195838

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