Computers & Business Machines
Imagine the loss, 100 years from now, if museums hadn't begun preserving the artifacts of the computer age. The last few decades offer proof positive of why museums must collect continuously—to document technological and social transformations already underway.
The museum's collections contain mainframes, minicomputers, microcomputers, and handheld devices. Computers range from the pioneering ENIAC to microcomputers like the Altair and the Apple I. A Cray2 supercomputer is part of the collections, along with one of the towers of IBM's Deep Blue, the computer that defeated reigning champion Garry Kasparov in a chess match in 1997. Computer components and peripherals, games, software, manuals, and other documents are part of the collections. Some of the instruments of business include adding machines, calculators, typewriters, dictating machines, fax machines, cash registers, and photocopiers
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Model for the "Devil's Coffin" Diagram Relating to Computing the Volume of a Parallelepiped, Ross Solid
- Description
- This wooden model is one in a series illustrating the volume of solids designed by William Wallace Ross, a school superintendent and mathematics teacher in Fremont, Ohio. The incomplete unpainted wooden model has two pieces. One is a cube, the second is part of a parallelepiped with one square face the same size as the cube. A paper label pasted to a square side of both pieces of the model reads: DEVIL’S COFFIN (/) Phillips & Fisher, p. 305 Van Velzer & Shutts, p. 300 (/) Wentworth, p. 303 Wells, p. 278. This is a reference to four American geometry textbooks published between 1894 and 1899.
- In the course of the 19th century, American geometry textbooks came to be more than reproductions of British works. By the 1890s, several texts discussing solid geometry used a figure demonstrating the volume of a parallelepiped that apparently arose in the United States.
- In this construction, the volume of an arbitrary parallelepiped is first compared to one constructed having the same altitude and rectangular bases equal in area to those of the original solid. This figure is then compared to a third parallelepiped, this with the same altitude and six rectangular sides. John Farrar, following A.-M. Legendre, proposed such a construction in his Elements of Geometry . By the 1890s, the figure had taken a rather different form. Perhaps because it was difficult imagine from a two dimensional drawing, it was known as “the devil’s coffin.”
- Ross’s model of the construction had three parts, a parallelepiped with six sides in the shape of equilateral parallelograms, a parallelepiped with two square sides and four rhombic sides, and a cube. The parallelepipeds are dissected. The two models in the Smithsonian collections are the cube and one piece of one of the parallelepipeds.
- This model is not mentioned in Ross’s original manual for his surface forms and solids. The texts referred were published several times, but show the devil’s coffin construction on the pages indicated on the model on editions published between 1894 and 1899. Hence the date of about 1900 assigned to the model.
- References:
- A.-M. Legendre, Éléments de géométrie, avec des notes, Paris: Didot, 1794, pp. 178–184, Plate 8.
- John Farrar, Elements of geometry, by A. M. Legrendre. Translated from the French for the use of the students at the University at Cambridge, New England, Boston : Hilliard and Metcalf printers, 1819, pp. 134–139, plates IX and X.
- Thomas Heath, ed., The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements, vol. 3, Book XI, propositions 29 and 30, especially the commentary on Proposition 30, New York: Dover, 1956, esp. pp. 333–336.
- Andrew Wheeler Phillips and Irving Fisher, Elements of Geometry New York: American Book Company, 1896, p. 305–306.
- C. A. Van Velzer and George C. Shutts, Plane and Solid Geometry Suggestive Method Madison, WI: Tracy Gibbs, 1894, p. 300.
- Webster Wells, The Elements of Geometry, rev. ed., Boston: Leach, Shewell and Sanborn, 1894, p. 278.
- George A. Wentworth, Plane and Solid Geometry, rev. ed., Boston: Ginn, 1899, p. 303.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- maker
- Ross, W. W.
- ID Number
- 1985.0112.217
- catalog number
- 1985.0112.217
- accession number
- 1985.0112
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Flash Cards, Constructive Geometry
- Description
- This educational card game consists of fifty-five cards, a card listing Cincinnati Game Company products, a pamphlet of instructions, and a case with lid. It is one of a series of games designed under the general editorship of Richard G. Boone and the immediate editorship of David Eugene Smith by E.W. Wilkinson, principal of the First Intermediate School in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Cincinnati Game Company was a subsidiary of the U.S. Playing Card Company, formed from the Fireside Game Company in 1900 to publish instructive games for use in the schools.
- Compare 2014.0293.06, 2014.0293.07, and 2014.0293.08.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1903
- maker
- Cincinnati Game Company
- ID Number
- 2014.0293.06
- catalog number
- 2014.0293.06
- accession number
- 2014.0293
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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E.G. Smith Spherometer
- Description
- A spherometer is used to measure the curvature of such things as lenses and mirrors. The inscription on this example reads “E.G. Smith / Columbia, PA.”
- Ref: “Columbia Spherometers,” The Age of Steel (March 8, 1902): 24.
- E. G. Smith ad for “CALIPERS for SCHOOLS COLLEGES / Etc. VERNIER and METRIC SYSTEM” in American Journal of Education 28 (July 9, 1895): 33.
- “New Columbia Calipers,” The Iron Age (Oct. 13, 1910): 856.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- user
- Youngstown State University
- maker
- Smith
- ID Number
- 2010.0235.42
- accession number
- 2010.0235
- catalog number
- 2010.0235.42
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Ritty Model 1 Cash Register, Possibly a Replica
- Description
- After the Civil War, as American cities and businesses grew, business owners increasingly hired strangers to assist customers. At the time, it was all too easy for clerks and barkeepers to keep part of the money they received. The cash register, invented by the Ritty brothers of Dayton, Ohio, had a large display to indicate the sums customers paid. It also had a locked compartment that tallied total receipts. This is the Rittys' first machine, or an early replica of it. It was the basis for a commercial product called "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier."
- By 1884 the Rittys were out of business, but their patents were purchased by the National Cash Register Company. NCR made and sold much improved cash registers. By 1904, they were ready to convey the history of their company by showing this model at the St. Louis World's Fair. NCR went on to successfully make not only cash registers and accounting machines but electronic computers.
- date made
- ca 1904
- maker
- National Cash Register Company
- ID Number
- MA.316700
- accession number
- 225455
- catalog number
- 316700
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Spectroscope
- Description
- The Sorby-Browning micro-spectroscope is a direct-vision instrument that fit on the eye-end of a microscope. The form was developed by Henry Clifton Sorby (1826-1908), an English microscopist, and John Browning (ca. 1831-1925), the first important English spectroscope maker. It excited great interest when introduced in 1865, found numerous scientific, medical, and forensic applications, and was still popular at the turn of the century.
- This example incorporates several features that were introduced in 1870. One is a bright-line micrometer at the upper part of the prism tube that was used to measure the position of spectral lines. Another is a thumb-screw on the side that was used to focus the prisms and eye-glass on different parts of the spectrum. And yet another is an adjustable mirror that throws light onto the auxiliary slit at the side. The inscription reads “John Browning / London.”
- This example was owned by John King (1813-1893), an American physician, scientist, and proponent of eclectic medicine. It comes in a wooden box that also holds an assortment of glass slides.
- Ref: “On a New Micro-Spectroscope,” Chemical News 15 (1867): 220-221.
- H. Schellen, Spectrum Analysis (New York, 1872), pp. 133-140.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1870-1900
- user
- John King, M.D.
- maker
- Browning, John
- ID Number
- MG.M-02042
- accession number
- 83995
- catalog number
- M-02042
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Comparator Made by Warner and Swasey for use by S.P. Langley
- Description
- Smithsonian Institution staff have long used instruments, made in both the United States and abroad, to record and to analyze scientific data. For example, in 1887 astrophysicist Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834 -1906) began working as assistant Secretary at the Smithsonian, while retaining his position as head of the Alleghany Observatory in Pittsburgh. He was promoted to the position of Secretary of the Smithsonian that same year, and a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory soon was under construction in Washington. Langley had invented a sensitive instrument called to bolometer to measure the intensity of solar radiation at various wavelengths. It produced records on glass plates 60 cm. long and 20 cm. wide. To measure these, Langley and his associates used this apparatus, called a comparator, and a microscope that moved along the carriage of the comparator (this microscope is not present in the museum object). This particular comparator was made for the Smithsonian by the firm of Warner & Swasey Co. of Cleveland, Ohio.
- References:
- S. Pierpont Langley, Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution, vol. 1, 1900, pp. 64-65.
- Donald L. Obendorf, Samuel P. Langley, Solar Scientist, 1867-1891, PhD. Dissertation, Berkeley: University of California, 1969
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- maker
- Warner & Swasey Company
- ID Number
- MA.314884
- accession number
- 211531
- catalog number
- 314884
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Book, A Higher Mental Arithmetic
- Description
- John S. Royer (1845-1915) was born in Pennsylvania, but came to Ohio at the age of fifteen and soon was teaching in rural schools. He rose to become a school superintendent, publisherof a national journal known as The School Visitor, and the author and publisher of a variety of small books for school teachers. The stapled booklet on mental arithmetic first appeared in 1898, with this fourth edition published after Royer had retired to a farm in Bradford, Ohio. It presents lessons - in the form of numbered statements and problems - for diverse topics in arithmetic.. Royer also prepared "books that teach" on such topics as geography, physiology, and character.
- This copy of the book is unsigned, It contains a sheet listing other titles Royer published.
- Reference:
- "Prof. John S. Royer," The Ohio Teacher, vol. 56 #5 (December 1915), p. 201.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1907
- publisher
- Royer, John S.
- author
- Royer, John S.
- ID Number
- 1986.3110.01
- catalog number
- 1986.3110.01
- nonaccession number
- 1986.3110
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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