Pencil and ink wash sketch on white paper. In the background is a large building, in front of which are troops engaging in training. In the left foreground are a group of American soldiers, all wearing the Montana-peak style hat. Next to them is a tripod of some sort. Catalog card indicates that the sketch is of a training school for American artillery officers at Saumur on the Loire.
A pencil sketch on paper of a shop in St. Nazaire, France that manufactures artillery pieces and locomotives for the war. Two men stand in the center of a large building, surrounded by equipment.
Charcoal with white crayon drawing on blue-gray paper. The subject of the drawing is the interior of a locomotive shop near St. Nazaire, France during World War I. Several men are working on an engine in the left foreground. Also in the foreground, at the top of the paper, is a hook suspended from the ceiling. Other men, locomotives, and parts are depicted in the background.
Charcoal and pencil sketch on paper. The sketch shows the buildings that line the waterfront of a city. The river is in the foreground and is bounded by a wall, with steps leading into the water. There are people along the river bank; two of them appear to be fishing. In the background is a large castle that rises above the town; this is the Château de Saumur. An original label on the drawing read, "A view of the city showing the chateau. The city is interesting as the location of an important American artillery school." On the reverse of the paper is a small sketch of an artillery gun.
Charcoal sketch on paper of the shipyard at Nantes, France. Depicted at center left is a large ship painted with black and white dazzle camouflage. Behind that are several more ships in the distance, including others with various patterns of dazzle camouflage. In the foreground are several towers along the docks, with small buildings, cranes, and people walking around the shipyard. The water of the harbor disappears into the distance at right. Signed at bottom left by the artist, "Peixotto / July 1918"
Charcoal and watercolor sketch matted on brown matte with blue inner border. Two freight ships at right are shown in the harbor at St. Nazaire, France. The ships are painted with brightly-colored dazzle camouflage in blue, white, green, and pink. To the left are docks and cranes. A rowboat with two people in it passes in front of the ships. Smoke is visible from the smoke stacks in the background. Signed at bottom left by the artist, "J. Andre Smith / St. Nazaire, July '18."
A pencil and watercolor sketch on paper of a hospital at Savenay, France. This American hospital occupied several permanent buildings and temporary structures during World War I.
Charcoal sketch on paper of ships at harbor in Nantes, France. Depicted is a busy scene with ships and cranes lining either side of the harbor. Several rail cars and vehicles are visible moving supplies at left. In the distance the city of Nantes is visible with hundreds of buildings including a round dome with a spire on top.
Charcoal, pencil, and ink wash drawing on white card stock. The work depicts the interior of a locomotive shop near St. Nazaire, France. Men are working on the engines in the shop.
Graphite sketch of the town of Angers. Tall buildings line a street where groups of people are passing through. Several people carry umbrellas. There is a cart in the center of the street, in front of one the buildings. People can be seen in several windows of the building on the right of the sketch. Sketch done on white paper mounted on beige card.
A charcoal and pastel sketch on paper. This interior scene shows men working on two locomotives. Behind the two machines an open doorway shows smoke emitting from another factory.
Periscope for use in trench warfare, World War I. Wood and metal perioscope painted olive drab on the exterior and black on interior. Wood and metal shutter at bottom front of periscope slides up to reveal viewfinder. Corresponding mirror at top back of periscope reflects the scene down to the viewfinder, enabling the user to see up and over the trench from within the cover of the trench. Two hinged wooden flaps open at the top front and bottom back of the periscope to expose the interior mirrors for cleaning and repair. The periscope folds in half for storage. Manufacturer's label on shutter reads, "PERISCOPE No. 9 Mark 11 / (22 1/2 inches between Mirrors) / Adams & Co. / 1917. / When observing with a Binocular, rest it on / the Glass Screen. When observing without / a Binocular, lower the shutter until the eyes / are protected by it and the Glass Screen." Used during WWI and convoyed from the Base Ordnance Depot #1 at St. Nazaire, France, by Sergeant George C. Van Etton, who was relieved of the responsibility at the Army Supply Base, Norfolk, VA. Shipping ticket number 1514. Transferred from the War Department.
Joseph André Fresco of Angers, France, applied for a patent on a combination pencil and line-measurer on June 6, 1879. The model he submitted with his application was found in the Smithsonian collections in 1958. It consists of a rectangular brass tube with a round dial at one end and a pencil holder at the other. A gear on the pencil holder causes it to extend and retract. The pencil holder is marked: J FRANK. The dial has a magnetic compass encased in glass on one side, but the needle does not point toward North and appears not to be magnetized.
The other side of the dial has two intersecting circles marked in pencil, one divided to single units and numbered by fives from 0 to 20 and one divided to single units and numbered by ones from 0 to 10. Each circle has a wire for counting. A gear protrudes from the top of the dial case. The user was to run the gear along a map or scaled drawing. The counters would then measure up to 200 km on the drawing. The gear and counters do function on this instrument, both forwards and backwards, but probably not in a uniform manner.
A paper tag is marked: [2–225.] (/) No. 222,687 1879. (/) J. A. Fresco (/) Combined Penc (/) –il and Line Meas (/) –ures (/) Patented Dec. 16 (/) Rotary (/) measure (/) 1879. The patent drawing is pasted to the back of the tag. A second tag is marked: 79 Joseph A. Fresco (/) Stadio Curvimeter (/) Received June 3 (/) Issue.
According to the 1861 English census, Fresco was born in April 1854 in St. Giles, London. He worked in Angers, France, as a mechanical dentist. In 1879 he communicated with inventor William Robert Lake of London, who designed a similar device entitled "An Improved Instrument or Apparatus for the Linear Measurements of Drawings or Plans."
References: Joseph A. Fresco, "Improvement in Combined Pencil and Line Measurer" (U.S. Patent 222,687 issued December 16, 1879); The Commissioners of Patents' Journal, no. 2637 (April 11, 1879): 896.
Lidless, bracket-handled, cylindrical metric measure with a spouted, sloped collar and molded base; incised around collar, neck and above base. Stamped on front of body "LITRE" in incuse serif letters; on front of neck with an elongated hexagon containing clasped hands and "199" next to a small "H"; on face of handle with another clasped hands mark; and on top of rim with four raised serif letters and one small square. Flat bottom struck once with a rounded rectangular touchmark of a crowned shield containing a key flanked by the letters "GG". One of an assembled set of eight metric measures, DL*67.0326-.0333.
Maker is Georges Gras of Angers, France; working 1897-1925.
Le Mans type shouldered flagon or pichet with a double-acorn thumb piece and upturned wedge extension burnt to the rounded, heart-shaped, pouted lid. Pairs of incised lines around tapered rim, neck and midbody; stepped shoulder; and molded domed base. Strap handle has short square terminal with square attachment; domed-end hinge pin. Top of lid struck with two touchmarks, a large oval with "ETAIN FIN" above "MARTIN AU MANS / 1838" encircling a stemmed rose and "MARTIN / AUMANS" in smaller raised serif letters in stacked rectangles.
Most early calculating machines carried out multiplication as a form of repeated addition. To multiply, say, by thirteen, one set the carriage at its rightmost position, turned the operating crank three times, shifted the carriage one position to the left, and turned the crank once. Ramon Verea of New York had patented a machine capable of direct multiplication in 1878, but it was never produced. In 1888, the young Frenchman Léon Bollée (1870–1913) of Le Mans constructed a calculating machine which embodied a multiplication table. He completed a better version of the machine in time to exhibit it at the Exposition Universelle, a World’s Fair held in Paris in 1889, and received a gold medal. This somewhat later version of the machine came to the Smithsonian from the collection of Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company.
The large manually operated non-printing direct multiplication calculating machine has an iron base with a brass and steel mechanism and an open framework. A metal box carrying 12 setting levers moves along a bar near the front of machine. In front of it are a multiplier knob and brass disc with 20 teeth. The spaces between the teeth are labeled from 0 to 9 and from 0 to 9 again around the edge. Rotating the multiplier knob moves the metal box, placing it in one of the spaces between the teeth of the disc sets the digit of the multiplier.
Moving one of the setting levers forward moves forward a multiplication body below it. Each multiplication body is has a rectangular base and rows of vertical pins which represent the multiples of digits from 1 to 9. The pins of the multiplication bodies control the motion of several sets of brass pins mounted vertically over them and linked to the result register. The operating crank with its wooden handle are on the left side. Rotating the crank lifts the box upward so that the multiplication bodies engage the pins.
On the right side is a lever that may be set at either + or -. Toward the front is a set of 21 cylindrical dials, visible through windows. Each dial shows two digits at any one time. The top row of digits is labeled MULTN and used to show the multiplier in multiplication. The lower row of digits is labeled QUOTT and shows the quotient in division. Above this row of cylinders is a row of 21 dials which shows the result in multiplication and is set with thumbscrews with the divisor in division.
A brass piece across the top of the machine reads: MACHINE À CALCULER de Léon BOLLÉE (/) AU MANS [FRANCE]. It also reads: EXPON UNIVLLE (/) PARIS. 1889. MÉDLLE D’OR. It also reads: BTEE S.G.D.G. EN FRANCE (/) ET À L’ÉTRANGER.
A few years after Bollée introduced his machine, the Swiss inventor Otto Steiger patented a direct multiplication calculating machine that would sell widely as the Millionaire.
References:
Léon Bollée, “Calculating-Machine,” U.S. Patent 556720, March 17, 1896. This patent lists Bollée’s French, Belgian and British patent numbers in addition to describing the machine.
Leon Bollée, “Notice sur les machines a calculer,” Bulletin de la Societé d”Encouragement pour Industrie National, 1895, vol. 94, pp. 977-996. A report on the machine by General Hippolyte Sebert precedes this article. The article is presently (October 27, 2021) available online.
Jean Marguin, Histoire des instruments et machines à calculer, Paris: Hermann, 1994, pp. 130–136.