Science & Mathematics - Overview
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.
"Science & Mathematics - Overview" showing 1 items.
The Calculator
- Description
- This stylus-operated non-printing seven-wheeled adding machine is made of steel painted black. Below each wheel is a disc with the digits from 0 to 9 printed close to the center. Each wheel has ten holes, one of which has been cut large enough to reveal a digit on the disc below. Numbers are entered by rotating wheels. Clockwise rotation adds a digit, counterclockwise subtracts. The result appears in the large holes of the wheels. The two rightmost and the two leftmost wheels are painted black. The three center ones are unpainted. This makes it easy to distinguish cents, dollars up to $999, and larger amounts. The machine is marked: THE CALCULATOR CO. (/) GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. (/) PATD. The back of the instrument is covered with green felt. The silver-colored metal stylus resembles a nut pick. Documentation is stored separately.
- This example was donated to the Smithsonian by Richard J. De Prez, who inherited it from his father.
- Compare to Smallwood calculator (see MA*336184).
- Reference:
- Popular Science Monthly, July, 1920, vol. 97, p. 9 - advertising for agents - machine sold for $12.50. According to Robert Otnes, the Calculator Corporation was at the address in Grand Rapids given on 1982.0542.02 (trade literature relating to this object) in the 1917 Grand Rapids city directory. Before this it had a different name and afterward a different address. By 1920 it moved to a different building.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1920
- maker
- Calculator Corporation
- ID Number
- 1986.0542.01
- accession number
- 1986.0542
- catalog number
- 1986.0542.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center