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 13 items.
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Veeder Counter
- Description
- In 1895 the mechanical engineer Curtis Veeder (1862-1943) founded the Veeder Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Ct. It made cyclometers that measured the distance traveled by bicycles. The business expanded to include counters for speedometers, machines, production workers, and other purposes. In 1928 the company merged with the Root Company to form Veeder-Root, a firm that remained in business for decades.
- This counter has a brass frame painted black. A glass window reveals four number wheels, with a decimal point in the middle. Turning a knob on the right side advances the number wheels by .10 per revolution (i.e., the rightmost wheel turns once per revolution). A mark on one end reads: THE VEEDER MFG.CO (/) Veeder (/) HARTFORD CONN USA. A mark on the other end reads: 3713627.
- An undated catalog of Veeder Manufacturing Company shows a counter similar to this one and reports that these counters were “furnished to and used by the U.S. Weather Bureau." The counter shown in the catalog would be rotated with the left hand, while the object in the collections is most naturally rotated with the right hand.
- References:
- “Veeder’s Successful Development of the ‘Big Unit’ Market,” Printers’ Ink, vol. 103 #4, April 25, 1918, pp. 129–132, 137–138.
- Veeder Manufacturing Company, [Catalog], no date, Hartford, Ct., Trade Literature, Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
- date made
- ca 1920
- maker
- Veeder Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1987.3066.01
- nonaccession number
- 1987.3066
- catalog number
- 1987.3066.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Revolution Counter by A. Sainte of Paris
- Description
- This portable revolution counter has a handle at one end. The point at the other end is pressed against the end of the axis of the shaft whose revolutions are counted. In between are two wheels. When the lower wheel turns once, the upper wheel moves one tenth of its circumference. The edges of both wheels are divided into 100 equal parts. Each tenth division is numbered.
- The lower wheel is labeled: TENS. Its divisions are numbered clockwise from 0 to 9 on the inside, and counterclockwise from 0 to 9 on the outside. The upper wheel is labeled: HUNDREDS. Its divisions are numbered counterclockwise from 0 to 9 on the inside and clockwise from 0 to 9 on the outside. A spring disengages the wheels to allow zeroing.
- A mark on the back of one wheel reads: A. Sainte (/) A Paris.
- The end of the shaft has three attachments. The instrument also has a metal weight and fits into a velvet and satin-lined case.
- By counting the number of revolutions of the shaft of a steam engine and knowing the steam pressure and the properties of the engine, steam engineers could compute the horsepower of the engine. A. Sainte patented a device for this purpose in 1877, and exhibited it at the Exhibition Universelle held in Paris in 1878. A form of the device was still being manufactured as late as 1903.
- References:
- J. Buchetti, Engine Tests and Boiler Efficiencies, trans. Alexander Russell, Westminster: Archibald Constable, 1903, pp. 120-123.
- Science Museum, Catalogue of the Mechanical Engineering Collection of the Science Museum South Kensington, London: HIs Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1919, pp. 234-235.
- date made
- ca 1880
- maker
- A. Sainte
- ID Number
- 1990.0316.01
- accession number
- 1990.0316
- catalog number
- 1990.0316.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Counter from the U.S. Geological Survey
- Description
- This instrument consists of a mahogany case, nailed shut, with two glass windows. Four openings in a brass plate are visible below one of the windows. These windows are marked on the brass 10, 100, 1000, and 10000. There are number dials below them. According to earlier cataloging, the instrument contains an electromagnet and clockwork which operates the counter. Powered by a battery, the device could count numbers of revolutions and similar phenomena. Measuring time with a stop watch, one could calculate velocities.
- A mark at the front of the top of the instrument and on the bottom reads: 39. The U.S. Geological Survey transferred the instrument to the Smithsonian in 1908. It had been used in the Water Resources Branch of the Survey.
- Reference:
- Accession file 48341.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- ID Number
- MA*248693
- catalog number
- 248693
- accession number
- 48341
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Rotary Measure, U.S. Patent Office Model
- Description
- This small U.S. Patent Office model for a counter has the shape of an old-fashioned door key, with a dial protruding from the middle. A screw attached to a nozzle links to a shaft and rotates the dial. The edge of this dial is divided into 100 parts, which are labeled by 10s. A fixed pointer screwed to the middle of the dial indicates its reading. A second nozzle is tied to the object. The object illustrates the patent for “An Improvement in Rotary Devices” (#182,177) taken out by Daniel Davis Jr. and Edward Wright on September 12, 1876. There is no patent model tag.
- Daniel Davis Jr. (1844-1919) was the son of Massachusetts instrument maker Daniel Davis (1813-1887). The elder Davis retired from Boston to his home town of Princeton, Mass., in 1852 to farm. Some time after 1870, the younger Daniel Davis moved to Worcester, where he worked as a brass founder and took out a patent for water filters with one Benaiah Fitts.
- Edward Wright was born in New York around 1834. He patented an improvement in pickers for looms in September 1867. He received another patent for improvement in self-acting mules for spinning in February 1870. In September 1876 Wright and Davis received the U.S. patent for improvement in rotary measures for which this object is the model.. Both men were then living in Worcester.
- References:
- Daniel Davis Jr. and Benaiah Fitts, "Improvement in Water-Filters," U.S. Patent 146442, January 13, 1874.
- Edward Wright, “Improvement in Pickers for Looms.” U.S. Patent 69880, 16 September 1867.
- Edward Wright, “Improvement in Self-Acting Mules for Spinning.” U.S. Patent 99511, 1 February 1870.
- Edward Wright and Daniel Davis Jr., “Improvement in Rotary Measures.” U.S. Patent 182177, 12 September 1879.
- U.S. Census, 1860, 1870, 1880.
- Web site of the Princeton, Mass., Historical Society, http://www.princetonmahistory.org/people-groups/residents/daniel-davis
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1876
- date patented
- 1876-09-12
- patentee
- Davis, Jr., Daniel
- Wright, Edward
- ID Number
- MA*308942
- catalog number
- 308942
- accession number
- 89797
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Counter for Magnetic Coils
- Description
- As the eminent British physicist James Clerk Maxwell pointed out in his Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, it was important for 19th century scientists to count the number of turns of wire laid down in constructing galvanometer coils and similar electrical instruments. To do this, Maxwell used a string attached to a shaft turned by the same lathe that held the wheel on which the wire of the coil was wound. Nails helped count the turns of the shaft marked by the string. A device linked to the wheel measured the wire as it turned on the wheel to form the coil, detecting changes in circumference.
- This instrument has a brass wheel 18 cm. in diameter. The wheel turns in a steel yoke with a wooden handle. According to the accession file, it was designed by James Clerk Maxwell for measuring the wire in a coil. It lacks a counting element and has no maker’s marks.
- References:
- Accession File 218174.
- James Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, 2, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1873, p. 314. Subsequent editions of the book contained the same image.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- ID Number
- MA*315174
- catalog number
- 315174
- accession number
- 219145
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Counter for Odometer
- Description
- This worn, rough metal counter has three wheels for tallying numbers up to 999. t once attached to a wheel and recorded rotations, serving as an odometer.
- A stamp on the object reads: CARMEAN (/) ANTHONY KS. According to the accession file, it was made by W. H. Carmean, who lived for a time in Hutchinson, Kansas. William H. Carmean is listed in the 1910 U.S. Census as a twenty-four- year-old, Kansas-born resident of Anthony, Kansas. He was not living there in 1900 or 1920, hence the rough date assigned to the object.
- According to the donor, an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the counter and wheel were used in the early days of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, established in 1933. Measures of distance were carried out to help compute acreages.
- References:
- Accession File.
- U.S. Census 1900, 1910, 1920.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- maker
- Carmean, W. H.
- ID Number
- MA*327579
- catalog number
- 327579
- accession number
- 268149
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
High Speed Indicator, a Revolution Counter
- Description
- To count revolutions of the shafts that ran machinery, engineers used counters like this one. The manufacturer, L. S. Starrett Company of Athol , Mass., called the device a speed indicator, although it has no timekeeping apparatus. The steel counter has a flat handle on one side and a rotating cylindrical rod on the other. In between is a flat curved case on which a dial is mounted. Pressing the rod against a rotating shaft rotates it and advances the dial. The edge of the dial is divided into 100 equal parts, which are numbered from 10 to 100 by tens. Two different nozzles fit into the far end of the cylinder. The instrument fits in a red, white, and black paper box.
- A mark on the dial reads: THE L. S. STARRETT CO. (/) ATHOL, MASS. U.S.A. Another mark there reads: PAT. APR.13.97 (/) MAR.28.05
- This counter is one of the many inventions of Laroy Starrett (1836-1922), who was born and raised on a farm in Maine. In 1880, having successfully patented and sold a meat chopper, as well as shoe studs and hooks, Starrett established a business in Athol, Mass., to sell drawing instruments and small tools. He applied for a patent for a speed indicator in 1895, and received it in 1897.
- Stafford P. Walsh of San Francisco, Ca., improved on the instrument, assigning his patent to L. S. Starrett Company when it was granted March 28, 1905. The device sold in at least three models. This is No. 104, which was particularly intended for high speeds. It was sold both directly by Starrett and through distributors of tools and steam engine equipment. This speed indicator is mentioned in Starrett catalogues into the 1930s.
- References:
- L. S. Starrett, “Speed-Indicator,” U.S. Patent 580,432, April 13, 1897.
- S. P. Walsh, “Speed-Indicator,” U.S. Patent 756,073, March 28, 1905.
- “Laroy S. Starrett,” National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 18, New York: J. T. White and Company, p. 428.
- L. S. Starrett Company, Catalogue, Athol, Mass., about 1937, p. 192.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1910
- maker
- L. S. Starrett Company
- ID Number
- MA*335271
- catalog number
- 335271
- accession number
- 314637
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Payroll Counter or Denominator
- Description
- At a time when employers paid workers in cash, knowing the combination of bills and coins needed to meet a payroll was a challenge. The Denominator, a device for counting items in classes, eased that task and similar cash payments. It consists of a set of eleven counters, each with a separate operating key. Six keys are for values of cents, and five for dollar values. Behind each key are three wheels; the value shown by the wheels increases by one each time the key is pressed. The keys are marked: $20; $10; $5; $2; $1; 50¢; 25¢; 10¢; 5¢; 3¢; 1¢.
- A steel wing nut on the left side zeros when rotated. On the right side is a space for a sheet of forms.
- A mark on the top behind the wheels reads: DENOMINATOR (/) PATENTS PENDING. A mark in front of the keys reads: DENOMINATOR ADDING MACHINE CO. (/) 224-226 SHEPHERD AVE. BROOKLYN, N.Y. A mark on the wing nut reads: 2249.
- The Denominator Adding Machine Company of Brooklyn, N.Y. is listed in Thomas’s Register of American Manufacturers from 1916 through at least 1928. According to Martin, it originated in 1915. William A. Cook of Hollis, N.Y, and Joseph Levine of Brooklyn, N.Y., applied for a patent for a “denominating apparatus” March 9, 1921. Their invention closely resembles this product. When the patent was granted in 1923, they assigned it to the Denominator Adding Machine Company. The date of this patent application is taken as the approximate date of the object.
- References:
- W. A. Cook and J. Levine, “Denominating Apparatus,” U. S. Patent 1,444,586, February 6, 1923..
- J. H. McCarthy, American Digest of Business Machines, Chicago: American Exchange Service, 1924, pp. 42-43.
- E. Martin, The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen), trans. P. A. Kidwell and M. R. Williams, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, p. 290-291.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1921
- maker
- Denominator Adding Machine Company
- ID Number
- 1988.0795.01
- catalog number
- 1988.0795.01
- accession number
- 1988.0795
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Counter, Stillman Counting Machine, U.S. Patent Office Model
- Description
- During the second half of the 19th century, steam engines played a growing role in American life. This U.S. Patent Office model is for a counter used to count the number of revolutions of a steam engine. Paul Stillman (about 1811-1856) was one of three brothers who ran the New York City machine shop Novelty Iron Works. He took a particular interest in steam gauges,manometers, steam indicators, and pyrometers.
- In 1848 Stillman took out a patent for a device to measure the pressure of steam and the extent of the vacuum in steam boilers and engines. This invention won him recognition from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. The measuring device on this instrument was analog, not digital. In 1854 he patented this digital improvement in counting machines. The following year, he patented a water gauge for steam boilers. Stillman’s son, Francis H. Stillman, also became a distinguished mechanical engineer.
- The patent model has a wooden base and sides, with a metal plate across the top with four windows in it. Underneath each window is a cogged metal wheel, with the digits from 0 to 9 around the rim. To the right, on the same shaft as the wheels, is a brass crank that fits through a fifth hole in the plate. Moving the crank forward advances the rightmost wheel by one and, if necessary, activates the carry mechanism.
- A mark on a paper tag nailed to the frame reads: Paul Stillman (/) Appa’ for Registering Numbers (/) Dec 15th 1852. A mark on the back of the base reads: 11577 (/) L 1201-1208.
- The Novelty Iron Works made and sold Stillman’s register before and after his death. An 1864 price list, included at the back of a new edition of his The Steam Engine Indicator, and the Improved Manometer Steam and Vacuum Gauges; Their Utility and Application, indicates that the registers then sold with dials in 8”, 10” and 13” sizes, and had prices of $65.00 to $75.00 apiece.
- References:
- P. Stillman, “Improvement in Counting-Machines,” U.S. Patent 11,577, August 22, 1854.
- P. Stillman, The Steam Engine Indicator, and the Improved Manometer Steam and Vacuum Gauges; Their Utility and Application, New York: Van Nostrand, 1864, pp. 82-84, 94-95. Editions of this book appeared at least as early as 1851.
- "Deceased Inventors," Scientific American, 20 #2 (Sept 20 1856), p. 11.
- “Francis H. Stillman: A Biographical Sketch,” Cassier’s Magazine, 33, #6 (April 1908), p. 684.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1854
- patentee
- Stillman, Paul
- maker
- Stillman, Paul
- ID Number
- MA*309327
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- 309327
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Atkinson Counting Register, U.S. Patent Office Model
- Description
- This roughly built wooden and metal device is the U.S. patent model for a counter patented by Alexander P. Atkinson of Vermont, Ill., on November 7, 1871. It has an open wooden frame, with a window at the front for viewing the registering wheels. The three wheels are mounted on a crosswise shaft, along with a fourth wheel, which drives the others. Lowering a crank on the right side of the frame moves the driving wheel and the rightmost registering wheel one unit back. Returning the crank upright moves the driving but not the registering wheel.
- The wheels are wooden. The registering wheels are covered with paper bands around the edge which have the digits marked from 0 to 9. Screws are used as gear teeth in much of the mechanism. The device carries. According to the patent, the machine was intended for use in counting the number of bushels or other measures of grain that passed a given point.
- A mark on the front above the window reads: A.P. Atkinson (/) Vermont (/) Ill’s.
- Alexander P. Atkinson (1840-1906) lived in Vermont, Ill., and founded the Vermont Loan and Building Association in 1889. He remained President of that bank into the 20th century.
- References:
- Alexander P. Atkinson, “Improvement in Counting-Registers,” U.S. Patent 120,609, November 7, 1871.
- J. S. McCullough, Twelfth Annual Report of the Condition of Building, Loan and Homestead Associations Doing Business in Illinois, Springfield, Illinois: Phillips Brothers, 1903, p. 307.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1874
- patentee
- Atkinson, Alexander P.
- maker
- Atkinson, Alexander P.
- ID Number
- MA*309342
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- 309342
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center