Scalers were used to count pulses from radiation detectors. Herbert M. Clark (1919-2009), a professor of chemistry at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, obtained this example from the Atomic Energy Commission in 1960. It is a Model GS4, Serial No. 411, built by Technical Associates in Glendale, Ca. The firm, a spin-off of the Manhattan Project, was established in Glendale in 1946, and moved to Burbank in 1953.
This spiral-bound notebook contains signatures of participants (students?) attending a program associated with A. Harry Wheeler. Dates range from February 4 to March 30, 1943, running in one direction. There were 5 to 7 attendees. Dates range from March 31 to June18, 1943, running in the other direction and there are only 2-4 attendees (especially Doris Parker and Ronald Paris). A mark on the cover of the notebook reads: NOTES. A mark on the page for February 4 reads: Spherical Trig.
This typescript is a translation by J. Lestrohan (?) of Maurice d'Ocagne's book Le calcul simpifié par les procédés mécaniques et graphiques. The translation was done for Felt & Tarrant Manufacturaing Company.
These advertising materials are part of a campaign promoting less expensive versions of the Marchant Figuremaster calculating machine (Marchant models SD and SDX)., as well as a set of operating instructions for t8-SD.
This sheet and pamphlet describe a desktop electronic calculator, the Marchant Cogito 240-SR. The calculator was made in the U.S., the name is the Latin for "I think."
This wire model has three painted triangular pieces that fit together at eight solder joints. It is not presently assembled and ther is no maker's tag.
In style, this model is like others made by Richard P. Baker, who spent his career on the mathematics faculty of the University of Iowa. The model has no maker's tag.
This collection documents one salesman's experience as a representative of an important American manufacturer of calculating machines.
This part of the collection is a notebook with pen given to Charles G. Pefinis by Marchant Calculators, Inc. to acknwledge his sales as a salesman in Atlanta, Georgia, in the first quarter of 1958.
For general information about the UCLA differential analyzer, see 1983.0023.001.
These two wheel and disc integrators are each in separate plastic-covered cases with a motor toward back of case and cloth-covered cables across the machine. The integrators have a common base, with a gray cabinet holding circuitry below.
The integrator on the left is marked "6," the one on the right is marked "5." Both are marked: General Electric (/) Differential Analyzer (/) Integrator.
The computing collection contains several schematics of the computer system X-66744, created by Samuel B. Williams and George Stibitz at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City. Williams and Stibitz designed a series of six electromechanical relay computers between 1939 and 1949. The X-66744 was fifth in the series of computers, later called Models I through VI, which were deployed in defense efforts, including executing calculations for antiaircraft guns at federal agencies and military research hubs. This computer was one of two duplicate Model V versions created between 1946 and 1947. The Model V computers were sophisticated digital calculating machines that employed about 9,000 telephone relays for switching elements and paper tape for programming. They could perform multiple calculations using floating point numbers and contained a system for self-checking errors. The Model V represented the limits of what was possible with electromechanical relay technology for the time. Even though relays would fail intermittently, the self-checking system and ability to automatically switch to other calculations afforded the machine its reliable reputation and impressive track record for continuous around-the-clock operation.
In 1946, the x-66744 was delivered to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in Langley Field, Virginia. Then, in 1958 it was given to Texas Technical College, although according to a 1963 article in The Bell System Technical Journal, the machine suffered extensive damage in that shipment and its parts were salvaged for the other Model V computer that was in operation at Fort Bliss, Texas and later New Mexico State University at Las Cruces before portions of it were acquired by NMAH. The article erroneously mentions that the latter computer was transferred to the University of Arizona rather than New Mexico State University. See the Model V (or Model 5) Control Panel in the NMAH collection (1987.0821.01).
References:
Andrews, E.G. “Telephone Switching and the Early Bell Laboratories Computers.” The Bell System
Technical Journal 42:2 March 1963): 341 – 353.
Ceruzzi, Paul. Reckoners: The Prehistory of the Digital Computer from Relays to the Stored Program
Each of these round metal cylinders is open at one end. On each circular closed end there are 6 holes in a circle, and two additional holes near the edge. The side of each cylinder has one additional hole.
The objects are painted black.
For general information about the UCLA differential analyzer, see 1983.0023.001.
1. an envelope with eight pieces comprising a plane dissection.
2. notes from an article by H. Taylor from Messanger of Mathematics, vol. XXXV (1905-1906), p. 81 and p. 87 , p. 88, p, 93, 94, 96-97 - with drawings.
3. notes with drawings on an article by W. H. Macauley "The Dissection of Rectilineal Figures," Mathematical Gazette, October, 1914, vol. VII, pp. 381, 382-383, 385-387 - also article by same author in Messanger of Mathematics, vo. XLIX, May 1919-April 1920, page 111-113 - also article by same author from Messanger of Mathematics, vol. XLVIII, May 1918-April 1919, pp. 159-165. With another envelope of pattern pieces.
