Teachers used this apparatus to provide exercises in arithmetic for children. It consists of a rotating steel drum inside a cylindrical steel cover. A 10 x 19 array of digits is printed on paper, and the paper glued to the drum. The bottom row of digits includes only digits 4 or smaller, the second and third row digits up to 5, and the fourth row digits up to 6. Black cardboard windows in the drum may be moved aside to reveal digits from two adjacent columns. Hence teachers could set a wide array of problems of differing difficulty.
A mark on metal tag attached to outer cover of instrument near the base reads: MODEL C VISIGRAPH (/) PATENTED (/) MECHANICAL EDUCATOR CO. (/) LOS ANGELES, CAL.
The cylinder sits on an iron stand that has rubber wheels so that it could be rolled from class to class. With stand, the dimensions of the object are 44.5 cm. w. x 44.5 cm. d. x 162 cm. h.
According to the donor, UCLA Emeritus Professor of Education Wilbur Harvey Dutton (about 1910-1994), the instrument was used at the Nora Sterry School (then the Sawtelle Public School) in West Los Angeles from about 1910.
In 1910, John G. Warfield of Los Angeles, California, took out two United States patents for apparatus similar to this. the patents came to be the property of the Mechanical Educator Company of Los Angeles.
References:
Accession file.
John G. Warfield, “Educational Appliance,” U.S. Patent 967,591, August 16, 1910.
John G. Warfield, “Educational Device,” U.S. Patent 969,429, September 6, 1910.
“To Build Own Factory: Reorganized Mechanical Educator Company Announces Plans for Building to House Growing Plant – Order Special New Machinery,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1916.
This device teaches simple addition and subtraction. It consists of a central cardboard disc with a rotating disc on its front and on its back, all held together by a joint at the center. One side of the disc has addition problems written around the rim, the second has subtraction problems. Each of the rotating discs has an indentation and a window along one section.The indentation reveals an arithmetic problem, the window shows the answer. Moveable paper covers would cover the answer windows. The covers are missing on this example.
The addition side of the instrument also is printed with a drawing of a young George Washington next to a felled sapling. Text below this reads: "I DID IT WITH MY LITTLE HATCHET." The subtraction side of the device shows a tall boy stretched out beside a fireplace reading a book. It is labeled: ABRAHAM LINCOLN BY THE FIRESIDE.
Reference:
[Advertisement], Toys, 18, June, 1921, p. 84. Advertised as patented and copyrighted.
This paperbound monograph describes the history of arithmetic teaching in the United States to its time of issue, with particular emphasis on the work and influence of William Colburn. The author, Walter Scott Monroe (1882–1961), was professor of school administration at the Kansas State Normal School. He went on to take an active interest in the development of educational tests (see MA.316371.045) .
The monograph was issued by the Bureau of Education of the United States Department of the Interior. This copy was the property of L. Leland Locke, a Brooklyn mathematics teacher and an historian of mathematics.
This instrument consists of a cardboard disc with a second disc rotating atop it, held together by a joint at the center. Close to the rim is a circle of drawings of common objects such as an apple, a bird, a cat, a dog, an eagle, a fish and so forth alphabetically to a zebra. Drawings of fourteen additional objects complete the decoration of the rim. Immediately inside this ring of pictures is a ring of capital and small letters that corresponds to the first letter in the spelling of the pictured objects. For example," A a" is next to the drawing of the apple. Inside this ring is a ring of simple multiplication problems, starting with 1 x 1. In side this is ring of fractions, simple whole numbers, and simple algebraic signs (+, -, X, =, etc.). The upper disc also has three holes in it that line up radially. Rotating this hole so that the outmost segment spells out the name of an object (as BIRD bird), the middle window shows the result of the multiplication problem next to the drawing (for the bird, the problem is 1 x 2, so the answer shown is 2) and the innermost window spells out the fraction, number or symbol (for the bird drawing, the fraction shown is 1/8 and the window reveals the phrase one eighth).
Compare this instrument to U.S. Patent 1,578,708, for a game device, issued to Gene G. Beckhardt of Newark, New Jersey, on March 30, 1926. The patented object was designed for purposes ranging from education to fortunetelling. It had a spinning pointer at the center.
This is the ninth in a series of models of plane figures (surface forms) designed by William Wallace Ross, a school superintendent and mathematics teacher in Fremont, Ohio. The unpainted wooden parallelogram (rhomboid in Ross’s terminology) is bisected along a diagonal into two scalene triangles. A paper label attached to the model reads: Rhomboid A 4x6 Bisected. According to Ross, the model shows that if a rhomboid (parallelogram) is cut diagonally through the opposite acute angles, two equal obtuse-angled triangles result.
Compare models 1985.0112.190 through 1985.0112.202. For further information about Ross models, including references, see 1985.0112.190.
This unpainted wooden model consists of two doweled pieces that can be arranged as a quadrilateral. The model is incomplete. It resembles other Ross surface forms.
Compare models 1985.0112.190 through 1985.0112.202, especially 1985.0112.193. For further information about Ross models, including references, see 1985.0112.190.
Just before World War I, Stuart A. Courtis, a teacher at a private school for girls in Detroit, Michigan, developed the first widely available standardized tests of arithmetic. His goal was to measure the efficiency of entire schools, not the intellectual ability of a few students.
Courtis went on to become supervisor of educational research in the Detroit public schools. There he developed a set of lesson cards in arithmetic for students in the third through eighth grades. The tests were originally published under his name by World Book Company.
This is a teacher’s manual for a later edition of the drill cards. Courtis’s name does not appear. Courtis withdrew his arithmetic tests from the market in 1938 because he had come to doubt their validity.
The manual was the property of Brooklyn school teacher L. Leland Locke.
Reference:
Kidwell, P.A., A. Ackerberg-Hastings and D. L. Roberts, Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 43–46.
Nineteenth-century inventors of improved school apparatus often collected testimonials from teachers and administrators who would attest to the value of their inventions. This collection of documents includes business documents and correspondence relating to Gould’s Patent Arithmetical Frame, a device patented by Henry K. Bugbee and then improved by John Gould. The lists of potential customers and testimonial letters date from the years 1880 to 1893. At least from 1885, Gould was in Chatham, New Jersey, which is where he was when he received his patent in 1882.
Correspondents include educators in Louisiana, Texas, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and New York. The 1881 instructions for the device (1994.0038.02) give an address in New York City. That booklet includes some testimonials, but none of the letters preserved here.
For an example of the arithmetical frame, see 1994.0038.01.
References:
H. K. Bugbee, “Arithmetical Frame,” U.S. Patent 43,545, July 12, 1864.
J. Gould, “Arithmetical Frame,” U.S. Patent 262,221, August 8, 1882.
“Gould’s Pat. Improved Arithmetical Frame, “ The Primary Teacher, vol. 5 #7, March, 1882, p. 270 (advertisement).
In the years following the Civil War, a handful of American educators designed and sold hinged or doweled wooden solids or flat shapes that they could be transposed into other shapes having areas known to students. One of them was Albert H. Kennedy (1848–1940), the superintendent of schools in Rockport, Indiana.
This small paper pamphlet describes an improved form of Kennedy's models for teaching the arithmetic of practical measurement. Drawings show a model of a rectangle, as well as dissected models designed to show related areas of a parallelogram, a trapezoid and a circle. Other drawings show a model of a rectangular solid and related volumes of a cylinder, a cone, a pyramid, and a sphere, and another model relating to the cone and the cylinder. Further models are described for finding square roots, cube roots, and the area of right triangles. Several practical examples are given for each model described. The pamphlet also includes tables of non-metric weights and measures.
For related objects, obtained separately, see 2005.0055.
This 56-page paper pamphlet, copyrighted in 1881, has the full title A Revised Key to Gould's Patent Arithmetical Frame; Containing Much New and Valuable Matter, Including Common Fractions, Percentage, and the Metric System. It has a variety of problems in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and decimal fractions that could be set up on a teaching device called Gould's patent arithmetical frame, along with answers. A section of the pamphlet discusses the metric system, and a variety of other arithmetic problems are included.
On the cover, Gould’s address is given as 72 Murray St., New York. This address is crossed out and Chatham, N.J., is written in in ink.
For a related object, see 1994.0038.01. For related correspondence, see 1994.0038.03.
This is the tenth in a series of models of plane figures (surface forms) designed by William Wallace Ross, a school superintendent and mathematics teacher in Fremont, Ohio. The unpainted wooden rhomboid (parallelogram) is bisected along a diagonal into two scalene triangles. Two adjacent sides on the left are equal, as are two adjacent sides on the right. A paper label attached to the model reads: Rhomboid B 4x6 Bisected. According to Ross, the model shows that if a rhomboid is cut diagonally through the obtuse angles, two equal scalene triangles result.
Compare models 1985.0112.190 through 1985.0112.202. For further information about Ross models, including references, see 1985.0112.190.
This is the fifth in a series of models of plane figures (surface forms) designed by William Wallace Ross, a school superintendent and mathematics teacher in Fremont, Ohio. The unpainted wooden model is divided into two pieces, with the smaller piece missing.
With the smaller piece, the model could be arranged either as a parallelogram or a rectangle. A paper label attached to the model reads: Dissected Rhomboid 4x6.
Ross argued that the parallelogram (or, in his terminology, rhomboid), like the rectangle, was the product of its length and its altitude.
Compare models 1985.0112.190 through 1985.0112.202.
For further information about Ross models, including references, see 1985.0112.190.
This is the third in a series of models of plane figures (surface forms) designed by William Wallace Ross, a school superintendent and mathematics teacher in Fremont, Ohio. The model is a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle, divided into 24 one inch by one inch squares. A paper label attached to the model reads: Oblong 4x6.
Comparing its area to that of a 6 inch by 1 inch rectangle (1985.0112.191), Ross noted that the area was four times 6 square inches, or 24 square inches. He generalized to argue that the area of a rectangle equaled the number of square units corresponding to the product of the length times the breadth.
Compare models 1985.0112.190 through 1985.0112.202. For further information about Ross models, including references, see 1985.0112.190.
This is the eighth in a series of models of plane figures (surface forms) designed by William Wallace Ross, a school superintendent and mathematics teacher in Fremont, Ohio. The unpainted rectangular wooden model is bisected along a diagonal. A paper label pasted to the model reads: Oblong 4x6 Bisected. According to Ross, this model demonstrates that a right-angled triangle with unequal sides adjacent to the right angle has half the area of a rectangle.
Compare models 1985.0112.190 through 1985.0112.202. For further information about Ross models, including references, see 1985.0112.190.
In the early 1960s, the Chicago firm of Playskool introduced this educational toy for children three to six years old, seeking to give them an early familiarity with numbers. It has two rows of relatively large rotating wooden rectangular blocks, each with a row of square rotating wooden blocks below. The larger blocks have problems in simple addition written on them, the smaller ones answers. The problems and correct answers are written in the same color of paint. The blocks move on metal rods that are attached at top and bottom to a frame. The frame is supported at the back by a collapsible metal stand. The frame is painted with a pattern of bricks on the side and a roof at the top.
A contemporary advertisement indicates that the toy cost $3.19.
Reference:
Jordan Marsh Company , [Advertisement], The Boston Globe, November 4, 1962, p. E5.
This is the eleventh in a series of models illustrating the volume of solids designed by William Wallace Ross, a school superintendent and mathematics teacher in Fremont, Ohio. The unpainted wooden model has a square base and four equal triangles for sides. A plane parallel to the base divides it into a square pyramid and the frustum of a square pyramid. A paper label on the model reads: Frustum of a Pyramid. Another mark on this label reads: (See Metallic Frustum). A mark on another paper label reads: Pyramid.
Compare models 1985.0112.205 through 2012.0112.217. For further information about Ross models, including references, see 1985.0112.190.
This is one of a series of models illustrating the volume of solids designed by William Wallace Ross, a school superintendent and mathematics teacher in Fremont, Ohio. It is a wooden square prism with a base of 1 inch by 1 inch and a height of 3 inches. The object has no maker’s label.
Ross took the fundamental unit of measure of rectangles to be one square inch, and the fundamental unit of measure for solids to be one cubic inch. He argued from there that a 1 inch x 6 inch rectangle had an area of 6 square inches (see 1985.0112.191). Similarly, this solid model consisted of 3 cubic inches. He would go on to consider several square prisms lined up end to end, and may have intended for this to be one of them. See 1985.0112.206 for two closely related models. These are also shown in the photograph.
Compare models 1985.0112.205 through 2012.0112.217.
For further information about Ross models, including references, see 1985.0112.190.
This is one of a series of models illustrating the volume of solids designed by William Wallace Ross, a school superintendent and mathematics teacher in Fremont, Ohio. The unpainted wooden model of the frustum of a triangular pyramid has three trapezoidal sides and a triangular top and base. It is dissected into three pieces. A paper label attached to one side reads: Triangular Frustum.
For Ross solids, see 1985.0112.205 through 2012.0112.217. For further information about Ross models, including references, see 1985.0112.190.
In the years following the Civil War, a handful of American educators designed and sold wooden solids or flat shapes hinged or doweled so that they could be transposed into other shapes that had areas known to students. One such person was Albert H. Kennedy (1848–1940), superintendent of schools in Rockport, Indiana. He sold this business to the Rockport School Desk Company. Modified forms of the solids were sold by the Western School Supply House of Des Moines, Iowa, A. Cowles and Company of Chicago, Illinois, and the American School Furniture Company of Chicago.
This model is of a dissected cone. The cone consists of twelve wooden triangular pyramids, with an extra section at the bottom of each prism. The pyramids are held together by cloth tape that is nailed around the circumference at the bottom.
The object has no maker's marks.
Compare 2005.0054.01, 2005.0054.02, 2005.0054.03 and 2005.0054.04.
References:
Arithmetic of Practical Measurements for Teachers' Instruction and Class Work in Mensuration. Published by Western School Supply House, Des Moines: Iowa Printing Co., 1893. This reportedly was ”To accompany Kennedy’s improved dissecting mathematical blocks. 20th ed.” A copy of the sixteenth edition, which has the same date, is 2005.3099.01.
“Paintings Presented to Local Schools,” Rockport Journal May 15, 1964.