Mudd's Tax Calculator
- Description
- Doing the calculations associated with tax collection has inspired inventors from at least the 1600s, when the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal invented an adding machine for that purpose. In 1879 Robert Levin Mudd (1837–1910), the county clerk in Bond County, Illinois, patented this tax calculator. It has sliding tables for calculating the tax due on property worth up to $10,000, at rates of 3 cents, 5 cents, and 25 cents per $100 value. Other columns give the total tax due if assessments are made at several rates for different projects. The instrument folds and fits neatly into a wooden case. This example is incomplete. Compare to U. S. patent 213234, dated March 11, 1879.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- mathematical table
- date made
- 1879
- maker
- Mudd, Robert Levin
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- paper (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- leather (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 10.5 cm x 58.2 cm x 51.4 cm; 4 1/8 in x 22 29/32 in x 20 1/4 in
- place made
- United States: Illinois, Bond
- ID Number
- 2009.3027.01
- nonaccession number
- 2009.3027
- catalog number
- 2009.3027.01
- subject
- Science & Mathematics
- Mathematical Charts and Tables
- Mathematics
- Taxes
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Mathematical Charts and Tables
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- Credit Line
- Gift of Michael Lawrence
- Additional Media
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