Computers & Business Machines

Prism Binoculars

Description

This is a steel instrument with black plastic fittings and black leather on the barrels. The left eye plate is marked “CARL / ZEISS/ 8 x 30.” The objective lenses are 30 mm diameter. The eyepieces are separately adjustable as is the inter-ocular distance. The barrel on the right has been bisected to show the internal structure.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

ca 1963

maker

Zeiss

ID Number

PH.323152

catalog number

323152

accession number

250105

Data Source

National Museum of American History

LOCI-2 Punch Card

Description

This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.

For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1965 or later

maker

IBM

ID Number

1980.0096.03.5

catalog number

1980.0096.03.5

accession number

1980.0096

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Booklet, Instructions Monro-Matic Monroe IQ Calculator

Description

This illustrated pamphlet is the third (1963) printing of an instruction book first published in 1961. It describes use of the MonroeModel IQ-213 calculating machine.

The document was received with an example of this machine that has museum number 1988.0663.01.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

ca 1963

ID Number

1988.0663.02

accession number

1988.0663

catalog number

1988.0663.02

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Pickett Trig Slide Rule Instruction Manual

Description

This 64-page booklet was received with 1993.0559.01. Its citation information is: Maurice L. Hartung, How to Use . . . Trig Slide Rules (Chicago: Pickett & Eckel Inc., 1960). It sold separately for fifty cents. Hartung was the University of Chicago professor who was closely associated with Pickett & Eckel in the company's early years and who wrote several instruction manuals for the firm's slide rules.

The booklet discusses slide rule operation, use of certain special scales, applications of trigonometry, and the principles underlying slide rules. Hartung focused on the operations of the instrument rather than on mathematical theory. There are problem sets at the end of each section, with answers in the back of the manual, and a few sets of "practical" (word) problems. Another copy of the booklet is scanned at http://sliderulemuseum.com/Manuals/M104_Pickett_HowToUseTrig_1960.pdf.

Reference: "Maurice Leslie Hartung," Mathematics Genealogy Project, http://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=7964. Hartung received a life achievement award from the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics in 1977, http://ictm.org/ictmawards/lifeachievement.html.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1960

publisher

Pickett Industries

author

Hartung, Maurice L.

ID Number

1993.0559.01.01

accession number

1993.0559

catalog number

1993.0559.01.01

Data Source

National Museum of American History

New Math Flash Cards, Subtraction

Description

From the 1950s, particularly after the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1958, American mathematicians and mathematics educators introduced a variety of reforms in mathematics teaching dubbed “The New Math.” This set of flash cards reflects the way of presenting subtraction problems that emerged.

The set consists of fifty cards, printed with subtraction problems on each side. The problems are written crosswise, with a box for the answer. The solution is printed in red in the upper left corner on the back. Another card lists basic subtraction facts (vertically), and three cards give work sheets and directions.

A mark on the paper box reads: MILTON BRADLEY (/) NEW MATH (/) FLASH CARDS (/) SUBTRACTION. Another mark reads: [copyright] 1965. A third mark reads: 4592.

These and several other sets of flash cards were donated by elementary school teacher Marjorie A. Naidorf.

Compare 2005.0055.06, 2005.0055.07, 2005.0055.08, and 2005.0055.09.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

ca 1965

maker

Milton Bradley Company

ID Number

2005.0055.06

catalog number

2005.0055.06

accession number

2005.0055

Data Source

National Museum of American History

LOCI-2 Punch Card

Description

This is one of a series of forty-column perforated punch cards designed for use with the programmable Wang LOCI-2 electronic calculator. Each card is marked in the bottom left corner: IBM D56709. Each card is marked on the left side: LOCI (LOGARITHMIC COMPUTER) PROGRAM.

For the calculator, see 1980.0096.01. For the card reader, see 1980.0096.01.1. For the card punch, see1980.0096.02.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1965 or later

maker

IBM

ID Number

1980.0096.03.6

catalog number

1980.0096.03.6

accession number

1980.0096

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Hologram of Toy Train

Description

This glass plate records the hologram, “Toy Train” by Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks. Made in late 1963, this hologram demonstrated their method of making high-resolution three-dimensional images of three-dimensional objects. Their success at the University of Michigan’s Willow Run Laboratory came after several years work on advanced radar techniques and lensless photography for defense purposes.

Leith and Upatnieks created this transmission hologram by exposing a black and white photographic plate to the laser light reflected from a toy train model. The image is reconstructed in three dimensions when the correct laser light shines through the glass. When they displayed this hologram at a conference in April 1964, other scientists lined-up to see their breakthrough. “Toy Train” was not the first hologram ever made, but the quality of the image stunned everyone. And so it became the first hologram many people heard about. Since then, many other types of holograms have been devised.

In 1948, British scientist Dennis Gabor had used two beams of electrons to record a microscopic image. He then tried to make images of larger objects using filtered light from an arc lamp but obtained poor results. The invention of lasers in 1960 gave researchers a better light source for making three-dimensional photographs and spurred Leith and Upatnieks’ work.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1963

maker

Leith, Emmett N.

ID Number

PG.69.186.05

catalog number

69.186.5

accession number

285032

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Keuffel & Esser 4070-3 Polyphase Duplex Trig Slide Rule

Description

This ten-inch mahogany duplex slide rule is coated with white celluloid and held together with metal endpieces that are significantly corroded. On one side, the base has DF, D, and L scales, with CF, CIF, CI, and C scales on the slide. The top of the base is marked in faded red: KEUFFEL & ESSER CO.; PATS. 2,500,460 2,168,056 2,170,144 PAT. PEND.; MADE IN U.S.A. The right end of the slide is marked in red: © (/) K + E; < 4070-3 >. On the other side, the base has K, A, D, and DI scales, with B, T, ST, and S scales on the slide. The left end of the slide has a serial number: 952594. The top and bottom of the base are both marked at the left end: 594. The indicator is glass with plastic edges; it is so corroded that it has fallen apart and is no longer on the rule.

There is a green leather case with white inlays on the holder for the flap. The flap is marked: K + E. Inside the flap is written in ink: Jeffery (/) Smith (/) P 68. An orange chamois case holds a magnifier with two lenses and a metal frame. On one side, the frame is marked: K + E. On the other side, the frame is marked: PAT. NO. 2556806. A green cardboard box, missing one end, holds the rule, its case, the magnifier, and its case.

For information on the patents on the rule, see 1993.0482.01 and 2007.0181.01. Paul E. Gaire of Manasquan, N.J., received a patent for the magnifier in 1951, replacing his earlier attempt at a magnifier, which could only be used on one side of a slide rule at a time. This double magnifier was first advertised in Keuffel & Esser's 1954 catalog and first pictured in the 1962 catalog; it sold for $5.50. K&E sold this version of the model 4070-3 slide rule from 1952 to 1962, at a price of $20.50.

References: Paul E. Gaire, "Magnifying Runner for Slide Rules" (U.S. Patent 2,556,806 issued June 12, 1951); K + E Catalog, 42nd ed. (New York: Keuffel & Esser Co., 1954), 276–277; Keuffel & Esser Co., Slide Rules, Catalog 8 (Hoboken, N.J., 1962), 29–30; Clark McCoy, ed., "K&E Catalogs and Price Lists for Slide Rules," http://www.mccoys-kecatalogs.com/KEmain.htm.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1954-1962

maker

Keuffel & Esser Co.

ID Number

1990.0317.03

catalog number

1990.0317.03

accession number

1990.0317

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Burroughs Series P Adding Machine

Description

This full-keyboard printing electric adding machine has a tan steel frame and eight columns of tan and brown square plastic keys. To the left of these is a column of keys with the numbers 71 through 79 (there is a 65 instead of a 75), presumably denoting years. Left of this is a column with four keys for the months of quarterly statements (DEC, SEP, JUN, and MAR) and two keys labeled MR and CHK respectively. There are function bars and keys to the right of the number the keys.

Above the keyboard are four number wheels. Behind them is a two-colored ribbon and a printing mechanism, an adjustable wide carriage, and narrow paper tape. The type wheel for months has all 12 months on it. The ribbon and its spools are covered, with screws holding the covers in place. Plastic knobs at the ends of the carriage are rotated to advance the platen. On the right side of the machine is a place for inserting a crank, although there is no crank. At the back on the right side is a lock for the machine, with the key in it. There also is a lock at the left front of the machine.

The machine is marked on the front: Burroughs. The serial number, on a metal tag on the back of the machine, is: P366728D It is from after 1960. Another metal tag on the back of the machine is marked: SERIES P (/) BURROUGHS CORPORATION (/) DETROIT, MICHIGAN MADE IN U.S. America.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

ca 1960

maker

Burroughs Corporation

ID Number

1987.0285.02

catalog number

1987.0285.02

accession number

1987.0285

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Replica of a Mariner's Astrolabe from about 1603

Description

This metal mariner's astrolabe is a replica of one associated by some with the French explorer Samuel de Champlain (ca 1567-1635). It was made for the museum.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1964

1963

ID Number

MA.323718

catalog number

323718

accession number

252316

Data Source

National Museum of American History

WFF 'N PROOF: The Game of Modern Logic

Description

This set of 21 games taught principles of modern logic. Players learned to combine grammatically correct logical statements called well-formed formulae (WFFs) into logical proofs. WFF 'N Proof was developed by Layman E. Allan of Yale University Law School under a grant from the Carnegie Corporation for ALL (Accelerated Learning of Logic). Allen applied for a trademark for WFF ‘N Proof in August 1961; it was registered the following year but has now expired. The game sold from 1962.

The set includes 18 wooden cubes with small letters, representing sentences, and 18 with large letters, representing logical rules of inference. The simplest of the games in WFF ‘N Proof were designed to teach young children how to arrange these cubes on a series of paper mats to form WFFs. The remaining games were meant to teach how to argue logically. These games involve assuming the truth of WFFs of certain forms and concluding the truth of WFFs of other forms using logical rules of inference. Thus players proved theorems but did not use that terminology. The most advanced of these games were designed to challenge college students.

The set also includes a timer, a book of instructions written by Allen, WFF ‘N Proof: The Game of Modern Logic (New Haven: Autotelic Instructional Materials Publishers, 1970), and a leaflet describing "Games for Thinkers" from WFF 'N PROOF Publishers of Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. All these materials are stored in a plastic case that is marked on the cover: WFF'N PROOF (/) The Game of Modern Logic.

In 1968 Layman Allen moved from Yale to the University of Michigan with a joint appointment in the Law School and the Mental Health Research Institute, where he continued his work on instructional games. Over the years the name and location of the distributor of WFF ‘N Proof changed, although the phrase “Games for Thinkers” has been associated with it from before Allen’s move to Ann Arbor. Price lists in the WFF ‘N PROOF Newsletters (part of the documentation in accession 317891) indicate that at first the game was distributed by WFF ‘N PROOF in New Haven, Connecticut, and sold for $6.00. In 1970 the price was raised to $8.00 and in 1971 the game was distributed by WFF ‘N PROOF through Maple Packers in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. At some point a firm called Learning Game Associates of Ann Arbor took over distribution of the game and donated this example to the Smithsonian in 1975. Later the Accelerated Learning Foundation of Fairfield, Iowa, became the distributor.

Reference: Games For Thinkers Website.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

ca 1970

developer

Allen, Layman E.

maker

Learning Games Associates

ID Number

MA.335302

accession number

317891

catalog number

335302

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Felsenthal FAE-15 Stadia Computer Circular Slide Rule

Description

This white plastic circular slide rule consists of a disc riveted to a square backing. The backing has a logarithmic scale of readings of a stadia rod used with a transit telescope, in feet. The disc has two logarithmic scales of angles. The first scale gives the difference in elevation of the transit and the stadia rod, in feet. It represents multiplying the stadia reading by 1/2 sin 2A, where A is the vertical angle of the transit telescope. The second scale finds the horizontal distance of the rod in feet and represents multiplying the stadia reading by the square of cos A. There is no indicator.

The instrument is marked on the front: STADIA COMPUTER. The interior of the disc has DIRECTIONS FOR USE and a table providing the quantity to be added when a constant is used in measuring stadia. On the back, the rule is marked: 6675-664-4676 (/) CONTRACT NO. DSA 700-68-M-AF86 (/) FELSENTHAL INSTRUMENTS CO. (/) CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (/) 22040 (/) MFR'S PART NO. FAE-15. It has a blue plastic case with snaps and a holder for a label. This object was donated with a second, duplicate Felsenthal stadia computer, which was assigned the same catalog number.

The instrument resembles Cox's Stadia Computer (see 1987.0221.01 and 1987.0221.02). Donor Ben Rau dated the object to 1968, which is consistent with the form of the company name on the instrument. For Felsenthal company history, see 1977.1141.01 and 1977.1141.02.

References: Deborah J. Warner, “Browse by Maker: Felsenthal,” National Museum of American History Physical Sciences Collection: Navigation , http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/navigation/maker.cfm?makerid=173; accession file.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

ca 1968

maker

Felsenthal Instrument Co.

ID Number

1977.1141.41

catalog number

336425

accession number

1977.1141

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Book, The Attractive Universe: Gravity and the Shape of Space

Description

This is a book by Evans G. Valens, published in New York by World Publishing Company in 1969. It comes from the library of the artist David Crockett Johnson. An figure on p. 135 was the basis of two of Crockett Johnson's paintings. One is entitled Law of Motion (Galileo). The painting has museum catalog number 1979.1093.46 and high definition image number 2008-2482. The second painting is entitled Velocities and Right Triangles (Galileo). This painting has museum catalog number 1979.1093.64 and high definition image number 2008-2535.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1969

maker

Valens, Evans G.

ID Number

1979.3083.06.79

catalog number

1979.3083.06.79

nonaccession number

1979.3083

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Long-Period Horizontal Seismometer (WWSSN)

Description

Working at the Lamont Geological Observatory, a Columbia University facility in Palisades, N.Y., Frank Press and his mentor, Maurice Ewing, designed seismometers that responded to surface waves of long-period and small-amplitude whether caused by explosions or by earthquakes. Their horizontal seismometer was of the “garden-gate” form: here, the horizontal boom attaches to the lower end of a vertical post, and a diagonal wire extends from the upper end of the post to the outer end of the boom. The first example was installed in 1953.

This example was made for the World Wide Standard Seismological Network. Established in 1961, the WWSSN was designed to detect underground nuclear tests, and generate valuable information about the earth’s interior and its dynamic processes. The WWSSN was a key component of VELA Uniform, a Cold War project that was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a branch of the Department of Defense. It was managed by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and then by the U.S. Geological Survey. That agency transferred this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1999.

Each of the 120 stations in the WWSSN had two horizontal seismometers of this sort (one to capture the east-west component of the earth’s motions, and one to capture the north-south component). This example was used Junction City, Tx. It would have been linked to a matched galvanometer (such as 1999.0275.09) and a photographic drum recorder (such as 1999.0275.10). The “Sprengnether Instrument Co.” signature refers to a firm in St. Louis, Mo., that specialized in seismological instruments.

Ref: United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Instrumentation of the World-Wide Seismograph System, Model 10700 (Washington, D.C., 1962).

W.F. Sprengnether Instrument Co., Inc., General Discription (sic) Long Period Horizontal Seismometer ([St. Louis], n.d.).

W.F. Sprengnether Instrument Co., Inc., Sprengnether Horizontal Component Seismometer, Series H ([St. Louis], n.d.).

Ta-Liang Teng, “Seismic Instrumentation,” in Methods of Experimental Physics, vol. 24 part B, Geophysics (1987), pp. 56-58.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1961-1962

maker

Geotechnical Corporation

W. F. Sprengnether Instrument Co.

ID Number

1999.0275.04

catalog number

1999.0275.04

accession number

1999.0275

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Painting - Bouquet of Triangle Theorems (Euclid)

Description

The mathematician Euclid lived around 300 BC, probably in Alexandria in what is now Egypt. Like most western scholars of his day, he wrote in Greek. Euclid prepared an introduction to mathematics known as The Elements. It was an eminently successful text, to the extent that most of the works he drew on are now lost. Translations of parts of The Elements were used in geometry teaching well into the nineteenth century in both Europe and the United States.

Euclid and other Greek geometers sought to prove theorems from basic definitions, postulates, and previously proven theorems. The book examined properties of triangles, circles, and more complex geometric figures. Euclid's emphasis on axiomatic structure became characteristic of much later mathematics, even though some of his postulates and proofs proved inadequate.

To honor Euclid's work, Crockett Johnson presented not a single mathematical result, but what he called a bouquet of triangular theorems. He did not state precisely which theorems relating to triangles he intended to illustrate in his painting, and preliminary drawings apparently have not survived. At the time, he was studying and carefully annotating Nathan A. Court's book College Geometry (1964). Court presents several theorems relating to lines through the midpoints of the side of a triangle that are suggested in the painting. The midpoints of the sides of the large triangle in the painting are joined to form a smaller one. According to Euclid, a line through two midpoints of sides of a triangle is parallel to the third side. Thus the construction creates a triangle similar to the initial triangle, with one fourth the area (both the height and the base of the initial triangle are halved). In the painting, triangles of this smaller size tile the plane. All three of the lines joining midpoints create triangles of this small size, and the large triangle at the center has an area four times as great.

The painting also suggests properties of the medians of the large triangle, that is to say, the lines joining each midpoint to the opposite vertex. The three medians meet in a point (point G in the figure from Court). It is not difficult to show that point G divides each median into two line segments, one twice as long as the other.

To focus attention on the large triangle, Crockett Johnson executed it in shades of white against a background of smaller dark black and gray triangles.

Bouquet of Triangle Theorems apparently is the artist's own construction. It was painted in oil or acrylic and is #26 in the series. It was completed in 1966 and is signed: CJ66. It is signed on the back: Crockett Johnson 1966 (/) BOUQUET OF TRIANGLE THEOREMS (/) (EUCLID).

Reference: Nathan A. Court, College Geometry, (1964 printing), p. 65. The figure on this page is not annotated.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1966

referenced

Euclid

painter

Johnson, Crockett

ID Number

1979.1093.19

catalog number

1979.1093.19

accession number

1979.1093

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Painting - Square Roots to Sixteen (Theodorus of Cyrene)

Description

Greek mathematicians knew that numbers could not always be represented as simple ratios of whole numbers. They devised ways to describe them geometrically. The title of this painting refers to Theodorus of Cyrene (about 465–398 BC), a Greek geometer who, according to the Greek mathematician Theaetetus (about 417–369 BC), constructed the square roots of the numbers from 3 through 17. Crockett Johnson's painting follows a diagram in Evans G. Valens's The Number of Things that stops with the square root of 16.

The construction of this oil or acrylic painting, #45 in the series, begins with a vertical line segment of length one. Crockett Johnson then drew a right angle at the base of the segment and an adjacent line with length one. From the Pythagorean theorem, it follows that a line from the center of the spiral has length equal to the square root of 2. The construction was continued until the last hypotenuse displayed length equal to the square root of 16.

The painting, which looks like a seashell, shows a specific color pattern. The three dark gray triangles have hypotenuses whose lengths are whole numbers (the square roots of 4, 9, and 16). The six white triangles have hypotenuses whose lengths are irrational and are square roots of even integers. Finally, the six tan triangles have hypotenuses whose lengths are irrational and the square roots of odd integers.

The painting dates from 1967 and is signed: CJ67. It is marked on the back: Crockett Johnson (/) SQUARE ROOTS TO SIXTEEN (/) (THEODORUS OF CYRENE).

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1967

referenced

Theodorus of Cyrene

painter

Johnson, Crockett

ID Number

1979.1093.32

catalog number

1979.1093.32

accession number

1979.1093

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Painting - Multiplication through Imaginary Numbers (Gauss)

Description

This painting was inspired by ideas of Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855). In his 1797 doctoral thesis, Gauss proved what is now called the fundamental theorem of algebra. He showed that every polynomial with real coefficients must have at least one real or complex root. A complex number has the form a+bi, where a and b are real numbers and i represents the square root of negative one. The French mathematician René Descartes (1596–1650) called such numbers "imaginary", which explains the reference in the title. Gauss demonstrated that, just as real numbers can be represented by points on a coordinate line, complex numbers can be represented by points in the coordinate plane.

The construction of this painting echoes a figure in an article on Gauss by Eric Temple Bell in J. R. Newman's The World of Mathematics that illustrates the representation of points on a plane. This book was in Crockett Johnson's library, and the figure is annotated.

In Bell's figure, real numbers c and -c are plotted on the x axis, the imaginary numbers ci and -ci are plotted on the y axis, and the complex number a+bi is shown in the first quadrant. The figure is meant to show that if a complex number a+bi is multiplied by the imaginary number i then the product is a complex number on the same circle but rotated ninety degrees counterclockwise. That is, i(a+bi) = ai+bi² = -b+ai. Thus, this complex number lies in the second quadrant. If this process is repeated the next product is -a-bi, which lies in the third quadrant. It is unknown why Johnson did not illustrate the fourth product.

The colors of opposite quadrants of the painting are related. Those in quadrant three echo those of quadrant one and those of quadrant four echo those of quadrant two.This oil painting is #40 in the series. It is signed: CJ67.

References:

James R. Newman, The World of Mathematics (1956), p. 308. This volume was in Crockett Johnson's library. The figure on this page is annotated.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

1967

painter

Johnson, Crockett

ID Number

1979.1093.28

catalog number

1979.1093.28

accession number

1979.1093

Data Source

National Museum of American History