This patent model demonstrates an invention for composite printing blocks made up of long pieces of type and short blanks; the invention was granted patent number 10483.
The Kirtland Safety Society Bank of Kirtland, Ohio, issued this five dollar note on February 10, 1837. The note’s plates are printed by Underwood, Bald, Spencer & Hufty of Philadelphia. The note is decorated with a central motif of a man seated on a log with a dog. The identical end panels depict a young boy with a shovel over his shoulder. The note is signed by the bank’s cashier, Joseph Smith, and its president, Sidney Rigdon.
The Kirtland Safety Society Bank was formed by Joseph Smith and other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on November 2, 1836. The bank’s constitution established the capital stock of four million dollars, a severe overextension of the available specie in the area. With the closing of the Second Bank of the United States in 1836, many states allowed “free banking,” however, Ohio still required banks to be granted a charter from the state legislature. When Ohio’s legislature declined a charter for Kirtland, the officers formed their own “anti” bank. Like many banks at the time, the Kirtland Safety Society Bank failed spectacularly in the general financial crisis of 1837.
From 1790 to 1863, states and private banks issued their own currency to supply capital in a young nation without a national currency. This currency was backed by the hard money the banks had on deposit, and was only used locally where the bank and its operators were trusted in the community. However, banks often oversupplied notes, and this overextension caused bankruptcy among private and state banks when financial panic struck, particularly in 1837. Currencies from these failed banks are known as “obsolete bank notes” or “broken bank notes,” and many are held in the National Numismatic Collection.
This patent model for an adder has as its base two concentric brass discs, one rotating inside the other. The rim of the outer disc has the numbers from 0 to 99 engraved around its edge. The inner disc has one hundred small holes marked evenly around its edge. These also are numbered 0 to 99. Two steel arms pivot at the center of the disc. The longer arm has a pin on the underside that fits into the holes and a small knob on the upper side so that it can be rotated. A protruding pin set at 0 in the outer circle stops the motion of this arm. It is used to add numbers up to 99.
When the total on the inner disc exceeds 99, the the smaller arm advances one digit, indicating hundreds. The number of hundreds entered appears in a window in a small disc that is on top of three relatively small gears concentric to the large discs. Hundreds apparently cannot be entered directly. The adder has a handle that projects from the center of the back.
Census records list two men who may have been Alonzo Johnson, the inventor of this device. Both were machinists. One Alonzo Johnson (no middle initial) was born 12 February 1828 in Bangor, Maine, the son of Louisa Underwood and Dolliver Johnson. Alonzo's father was a railroad engineer, then a superintendent of locomotive power on the Fitchburg Railroad and then associated with the Illinois Central. This Alonzo Johnson married in about 1850, and lived in Springfield with his wife Sarah and their children from at least 1870 through 1900. Census records also list an Alonzo H. Johnson, born about 1828 in Connecticut, who was living with his wife Hannah in Springfield in 1870, 1880 and 1900.
Alonzo Johnson of Springfield took out eight patents, the first two for calculating devices. These were #73732 (granted January 28, 1868, with James A. Loomis as co-inventor and Charles Gifford of Gardiner, Maine, as assignee), and #85229 (taken out December 22,1868, and assigned to Sylvester Bissell and Andrew West of Hartford). Later patents were for nut-locks (#188055, granted March 6, 1871), slitting lock nuts (#231492, granted August 24, 1880), a car-brake (#235152, granted December 7, 1880), a card-cutter (#241372, granted May 10, 1881), a sash-fastener (#255144, granted April 11, 1882), and a gumming device for envelope machines (#397798, granted February 12, 1889).
Compare to 1990.0318.01.
Reference: Alonzo Johnson, “Improvement in Calculating-Apparatus,” U.S. Patent 85,229, December 22, 1868.
P. Kidwell, "Adders Made and Used in the United States," Rittenhouse, 1994, 8:78-96.
Beginning in the 14th century, a small number of European businesses kept careful written records of receipts and expenditures. These bookkeeping methods gradually diffused throughout Europe and the United States. With the advent of typewriters and adding machines, many large retail firms, government offices, and banks invested in custom-made, expensive bookkeeping machines. The bookkeeping machines in the collection of the National Museum of American History come from a variety of makers, including adding machine manufacturer Burroughs, cash register maker NCR, and typewriter firms Remington and Underwood.
For most of human history arithmetic has been an act of human intelligence, aided only occasionally by devices like counters, the abacus, or the slide rule. The collections of the National Museum of American History document the development of adding machines, from stylus-operated models to increasingly compact, light and powerful key driven instruments. The corporate collections of the pioneering firms of Felt & Tarrant and Burroughs are especially well represented.
Description: White box containing typewriter ribbon, decorated with blue "O" on top. Ribbon on black metal reel.
Inscription Obverse: "Olivetti Underwood Nylon". Reverse: Cat. No. 7510-285-2966 Color/ inking Black Medium/ Machine. Underwood Standard. Underwood Standard Port Washington DC Cat. No. GS-00s-43160. Ribbon Black Grade A. Medium ink lot 3562. size 1/2" x16 yards, dated 11/66, made in USA."
The Underwood Model 5, introduced in 1899, is the result of almost thirty years of innovation and improvements in typewriter manufacture. It became the ubiquitous office machine for another thirty years, and its sales led Underwood to dominate the market. The Model 5 became the modern standard of how a typewriter worked and what it looked like.
The first successful commercial typewriter, developed by Christopher Scholes and Carlos Glidden, was brought to the public in 1874 by the Remington Company. Two elements from that first machine remained dominant in the design of eventual typewriters: the QWERTY keyboard, a pattern of letters on the keyboard, and the telegraph type key movement. At first sales were slow, but the typewriter industry grew as businesses expanded along with their need to retain records, and process paperwork at fast speeds. More and more people, mostly women, learned the new skill of typing, creating a new class of clerical worker, according to historian JoAnne Yates.
There were a handful of typewriter manufacturers by the end of the 1880s such as Remington, a leader in the industry, L.C. Smith & Brothers, Caligraph, Hammond, and a number of smaller firms. As the number of manufacturers grew, so too did the improvements, including the addition of a shift key to activate upper and lower case letters, the size and weight had been reduced but until 1895, but typists could not see what they had typed until the typed page advanced forward.
In the early 1890s, Franz X Wagner, a German immigrant, engineered the first reliable "visible" typewriter that allowed the typist to see the text as they typed. Wagner had already designed several earlier typing machines. John T. Underwood, producer of office supplies such as carbon paper and ribbons, purchased Wagner's design and manufactured it as the Underwood Model 1 in 1895. Unlike earlier machines, which had an up strike type bar from underneath the paper, the new design in
After six years and two other models that improved touch, and tab function and provided quieter operation, Underwood came out with the Model 5 in 1900. Compared to earlier machines of the 1870s, this machine is plain. The machine in the collection was produced in 1910. It has a black frame with gold lettering and stripping.
Yellow and red celluloid erasing shield advertising Underwood Elliot Fisher carbons and ribbons. It includes images of a box of carbon paper, a spool of typewriter ribbon, and a manual typewriter.
Description: Master model-Rhythm Touch. Black body, black letter and number keys: green keys for back space, margin release, shift lock and tab settings: 1, 10, 100, 1000 (located on 6th row just below circle of type bars) 4-line keyboard choice of three ribbon settings. Ribbon spools located on either side of type bars. Small wheel on right side winds ribbon. "Underwood" "6" and "11" printed in gold across paper guide. Oval seal on front left reads: "Typewriter Sales and Service Co. 811 17th St. N.W., Washington, DC" Back of Typewriter has gold writing partly visible: "Underwood. Made in USA. Product of Underwood Elliot Fisher Co...By United States.....AM.....Patt........8-3332."
This Underwood Standard Portable Typewriter was manufactured between 1919 and 1929 by the Underwood Typewriter Company. The Underwood Portable had a three-bank QWERTY keyboard, and unlike the more popular Corona 3, the carriage and platen did not have to be folded to become portable. The typewriter had a cover with a handle that allowed it to be easily transported.
Raoul A. Cortez, journalist and broadcasting pioneer, got his start in Spanish-language media behind this typewriter. Cortez worked as a reporter for the Spanish-language newspaper, La Prensa, in San Antonio, Texas in the 1930s and 1940s. Writing news stories and opinion pieces, he advocated for the civil rights of Mexican Americans and in particular for the rights of Braceros and the desegregation of Texas schools. Cortez served twice as the president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in the late 1940s.
Cortez moved from print journalism to broadcasting after World War II by opening the first Latino-owned, Spanish-language radio station in the continental United States in 1946. The radio station, and later television station, carried his name in the call letters, KCOR.
The Underwood Typewriter Company produced the Champion model from 1932-1949. The keyboard on this model included an inverted question mark and exclamation point ensuring that users, such as Cortez, could create stories in Spanish.
This finger and wrist exerciser was made by the Manuflex Company, in Portland, Oregon, about 1950. It is an Underwood Manuflex, has a black plastic base with black plastic "palm" or channeled base to rest fingers and palm. Base has six metal pins. "Palm" and the finger channels are attached underneath by springs which can be moved, positioned, and held by the metal pins on the base. The "palm" rests on the base and can be removed. Comes with manual and cloth cover.
According to the brochure collected with the Manuflex:
“Underwood Manuflex is a practical, efficient device for manipulating and stretching joints of the fingers and wrist…and for strengthening intrinsic muscles of the hand. Instantly adjustable for many variations of movement.”
Austrian-American violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler’s endorsement appears in The Violinist magazine from August, 1918:
“Some must, unfortunately, practice incessantly on technical difficulties which have long been mastered mentally. Through the application of the MANUFLEX the fingers are quickly made supple and responsive. Instead of wasting time, nervous energy, will power and imagination on tedious practice to accomplish this, the hands are brought to their best condition in a few moments by mechanical means. This should mean much to every player and Give more time for the cultivation of artistry. I therefore earnestly recommend Mr. Underwood’s invention to artists and students alike for daily use.
This hefty ten-key listing electric adding machine has a gray metal case with a 13” carriage. The block of nine white number keys has a zero bar below. Numbers of up to ten digits may be entered. To the left are correction, back space, and repeated addition keys. To the right are subtraction, addition, and no total keys. Left of these keys is a lever that can be set at “SHUTTLE” or “NORMAL.” Another lever can be set at “REG.B,” “A*B,” or “REG.A.” Another lever is unlabeled. Above the keyboard is a place indicator. Behind this are the printing mechanism, carriage, and cross-footer. Numbers of up to 11 digits can be printed. The machine has a two-colored ribbon. Tabs can be set to print columns at different locations along the platen, different sizes of paper can be used, and there are knobs for advancing the platen on both sides. The motor also is at the back.
This is model #303 from the Patent Division of Burroughs Corporation. It is marked on the back: Underwood (/) Sundstrand (/) Product of (/) Underwood Corporation (/) Protected by United States (/) and Foreign Patents (/) Made in U.S.A.. It is also marked there: 775180 (/) 11240SP
Compare to the Underwood Sundstrand Adding Tabulator (model 11240SP-13), described in 1990.188.07.
