Computers & Business Machines

• 

  Microscope

  Description

  This is a Model RK binocular dissecting microscope with track for lateral movement, coarse and fine adjustment, large square stage, sub-stage mirror, horseshoe base, and wooden box with extra objectives. The inscription on the eyepiece reads “BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL CO. / ROCHESTER N.Y. / 113679.” That on the stand reads “BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL CO. / ROCHESTER N.Y / BL / ZS / 1?09023.” The hand rests have been lost.

  Ref: Bausch & Lomb, Microscopes and Accessory Apparatus (Rochester, N.Y., 1922), pp. 80-81.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1914-1929

  maker

  Bausch & Lomb Optical Company

  ID Number

  MG.M-09354

  accession number

  224610

  catalog number

  M-09354

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Burroughs Calculator Sample, Double 1/8 Fraction

  Description

  In 1911 the Burroughs Adding Machine Company introduced a key-driven adding machine much like the Comptometer made by Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company. The Burroughs calculator, as the new machine was called, performed ordinary decimal arithmetic. Burroughs inventors soon designed special versions of the calculator to solve other problems. This is the model or sample for one of them.

  The machine has a black metal case with a green metal plate below five columns of plastic keys. The two right columns are for adding eighths. Both have seven keys marked off from 1/4 to 7/8 (several of these red key tops are missing). Three other columns have nine black keys, numbered from 1 to 9. Complementary numbers are indicated. Totals appear in six windows at the front of the machine. The two rightmost numeral wheels are red and indicate fractions. One of four rubber feet is missing. The cloth cover was taken from one received with 1982.0794.50.

  A red tag attached to the machine is marked: PATENT DEPT. (/) #231. The machine is marked on the front: Burroughs. A yellow paper tag attached to the machine reads: Double (/) 1/8 Fraction. A metal tag attached to the object reads: DONATED TO (/) The Smithsonian Institution (/) by (/) Burroughs Corporation.

  Objects 1982.0794.47, 1982.0794.48, 1987.0794.49, and 1982.0794.89 are all from Burroughs Patent Department Model 231.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1920

  maker

  Burroughs Adding Machine Company

  ID Number

  1982.0794.49

  catalog number

  1982.0794.49

  accession number

  1982.0794

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Geometric Model by A. Harry Wheeler, Union of Two Cubes

  Description

  This cut and folded tan paper model shows two intersecting cubes. A mark reads: April-23-1925.

  Compare MA.304723.115, MA.304723.123, MA.304723.545, and MA.304723.550.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1925 04 23

  maker

  Wheeler, Albert Harry

  ID Number

  MA.304723.545

  accession number

  304723

  catalog number

  304723.545

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Wimshurst-type influence machine

  Description (Brief)

  People from ancient times knew that rubbing certain materials and then touching something caused a spark. Studying what is called electrostatics laid the groundwork for understanding electricity and magnetism. Natural philosophers, scientists, and instrument makers created many ingenious devices to generate electrostatic charges starting in the 1600s. These machines varied in size and technique but all involved rotary motion to generate a charge, and a means of transferring the charge to a storage device for use.

  Many early electrostatic machines generated a charge by friction. In the later 19th century several designs were introduced based on induction. Electrostatic induction occurs when one charged body (such as a glass disc) causes another body (another disc) that is close but not touching to become charged. The first glass disc is said to influence the second disc so these generators came to be called influence machines.

  James Wimshurst (1832-1903) designed a new type of influence machine in the early 1880s. Since they did not need to be pre-charged or primed in order to work, they represented a vast improvement on previous machines. Within a few years Wimshurst became a generic term used to describe these devices and manufacturers began mass producing them at all price levels. This machine was used for many years to teach electrical science at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.

  The machine features two plates made from hard rubber rather than glass that rotate in opposite directions. Each has 24 metallic wedges called sectors that interact to generate the high-voltage static charge, and each is swept by two brushes on a neutralizing bar. Two Leyden jars sit in cups on the decorated base along with the spark discharge rods. No circuit is under the base but the base itself is metal and so the jars may be connected in that manner. The machine reportedly produced sparks 2 or 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) long, depending upon humidity in the classroom. The unit is heavily worn from extensive use.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1925

  ID Number

  EM.323732

  catalog number

  323732

  accession number

  252354

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Pamphlet, Factor Stencils

  Description

  This is a 1929 publication of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, written by D. N. Lehmer. It describes a set of factor stencils with museum number 1988.0316.01.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1929-06

  ID Number

  1988.0316.03

  accession number

  1988.0316

  catalog number

  1988.0316.03

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Geometric Model by A. Harry Wheeler, Fifteenth Stellation of the Icosahedron

  Description

  A stellation of a regular polyhedron is a polyhedron with faces formed by extending the sides of the faces of the regular polyhedron. Extending the triangular sides of an icosahedron can produce a variety of complex polyhedra, including this one. The surface has sixty short three-sided spikes. These meet in groups of three—each meeting point might be considered as the vertex of a circumscribing regular dodecahedron.

  The model is cut and folded from paper. It is Wheeler’s model 382, and number I21 in his series of icosahedra. Wenninger calls the surface the fifteenth stellation of the icosahedron.

  References:

  Magnus J. Wenninger, Polyhedron Models, Cambridge: The University Press, 1971, p. 62.

  A. H. Wheeler, Catalog of Models, A. H. Wheeler Papers, Mathematics Collections, National Museum of American History.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1927-05-12

  maker

  Wheeler, Albert Harry

  ID Number

  MA.304723.197

  accession number

  304723

  catalog number

  304723.197

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Geometric Model by A. Harry Wheeler, Small Stellated Dodecahedron

  Description

  This tan paper model has twelve identical faces that are intersecting pentagrams produced by extending the edges of the faces of a regular dodecahedron. The twelve vertices are also identical. The surface is one of two first described by Johannes Kepler in 1619, and now known as a Kepler-Poinsot solid.

  A mark in pencil reads: No. 41. Another mark reads: April-22-1925.

  Compare models 1979.0102.015, 1979.0102.166, 1979.0102.227, 1979.0102.258, 1979.0102.260, 1979.0102.310, MA.304723.026, and MA.304723.822.

  Reference:

  Magnus J. Wenninger, Polyhedron Models, Cambridge: The University Press, 1971, p. 38.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1925 04 22

  maker

  Wheeler, Albert Harry

  ID Number

  1979.0102.258

  catalog number

  1979.0102.258

  accession number

  1979.0102

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Fowler's Long Scale Calculator Circular Slide Rule

  Description

  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several circular slide rules were made to resemble pocket watches. Fowler & Co., of Manchester, England, was a particularly notable manufacturer of this type of slide rule. The company was in business from 1898 to 1988 and made a large variety of calculators, although the labor-intensive nature of its manufacturing process produced expensive instruments that never sold in large numbers.

  This example is the "long scale" model, consisting of a metal case with a ring, two knobs, and two rotating paper discs covered with glass. The front has a short logarithmic scale and a long logarithmic scale, laid out in six concentric circles rather than in a spiral. These scales are rotated by the knob on the left. The glass is marked with two hairlines. The interior of the disc reads: FOWLER'S (/) LONG SCALE CALCULATOR (/) PATENT (/) FOWLER & Co MANCHESTER.

  The other knob rotates the seven scales on the back of the instrument: multiplication and division, reciprocals, logarithms, square roots, logarithmic sines, logarithmic tangents, and a second scale for logarithmic sines. The interior is marked: FOWLER'S (/) CALCULATOR (/) PATENT (/) FOWLER & Co MANCHESTER. There is one hairline indicator on the glass. The slide rule is with a tarnished square metal case, lined with purple velvet. The outside of the case is engraved: Fowler's (/) CALCULATOR. The inside is stamped: Fowler & Co. (/) CALCULATOR (/) SPECIALISTS (/) Manchester (/) ENGLAND.

  William Henry Fowler (1853–1932) and his son, Harold Fowler, took out several British patents for improvements to circular calculators between 1910 and 1924. The first Fowler calculator with two knobs on the rim was patented in 1914. In 1927, Fowler & Co. introduced the Magnum Long Scale Calculator, which extended the scale length to 50 inches. Thus, this example is dated between 1914 and 1927.

  Charles Looney (1906–1987), the donor of this slide rule, catalogued engineering drawings and trade literature at the Smithsonian after he retired from the University of Maryland–College Park, where he served as chair of the Department of Civil Engineering. He also donated his library of books and pamphlets to the Museum.

  References: Peter M. Hopp, "Pocket-Watch Slide Rules," Journal of the Oughtred Society 8, no. 2 (1999): 45–51; Richard Blankenhorn and Robert De Cesaris, "The Fowler Calculators: A Catalogue Raisonné," Journal of the Oughtred Society 11, no. 2 (2002): 3–11; Museum of History and Science in Manchester, "Fowler & Co.," http://www.mosi.org.uk/media/33870536/fowlerandco.pdf; accession file.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1914-1927

  maker

  Fowler & Co.

  ID Number

  MA.333849

  catalog number

  333849

  accession number

  303780

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Geometric Model by A. Harry Wheeler, Thirteenth Stellation of the Icosahedron?

  Description

  This cut and folded tan paper model has twelve long spikes, each surrounded by five shorter, hollow spikes at which three faces meet..Wenninger calls a very similar model the thirteenth stellation of the icosahedron. The model may be considered as the union of Wheeler's models 368 (the 12-pointed icosahedron) and 382 A mark on the model reads: 384.. A paper tag reads: I 25. Another mark reads: 356'89'10'. Another mark reads: Aug 10-1928.

  Compare 304723.221 and 304723.226.

  Reference:

  Magnus J. Wenninger, Polyhedron Models, Cambridge: The University Press, 1971, p.60.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1928 08 10

  maker

  Wheeler, Albert Harry

  ID Number

  MA.304723.221

  accession number

  304723

  catalog number

  304723.221

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Leaflet, Directions for Using Woody-McCall Mixed Fundamentals Forms III and IV

  Description

  American psychologists Clifford Woody (1884-1948) and William A. McCall (1891-1982) wrote these directions. Both men studied in the education department at Teachers College, and both received their PhDs in 1916. McCall would stay on the faculty at Columbia. Woody spent most of his career at the University of Michigan as Director of the Bureau of Educational Reference and Research.

  Woody and McCall published Forms I and II of their test of fundamental processes in arithmetic in 1920. Forms III and IV were prepared in 1923 - Form III paralleled Form I and Form IV paralleled Form II. The directions describe in detail how the test is to be given to a group of students, procedures for marking, methods for finding the median class score, and standard scores on the test for the beginning of the class year.

  For related materials, see 1989.0710.01 (Form I) and 1989.0710.02 (Form II).

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1923

  maker

  Columbia University. Teachers College

  ID Number

  1990.0034.167

  catalog number

  1990.0034.167

  accession number

  1990.0034

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Psychological Test, J. O'Connor Wiggly Block

  Description

  The American psychometrician Johnson O’Connor (1891-1973) obtained an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Harvard University in 1913 and then studied mathematical astronomy under Percival Lowell. He next worked in electrical engineering at American Steel and Wire and then General Electric. Managers at GE encouraged O’Connor’s development of tests like this one, designed for potential employees. It is intendeed to measure aptitude for visualizing objects in three-dimensional space.

  The test consists of nine wooden blocks with curved surfaces that fit together to form a rectangular parallelepiped. O’Connor found that the ability to assemble the puzzle rapidly correlated with success in engineering, mechanics, and design drafting. By the mid-1930s the test would be sold by C. H. Stoelting Company. This example has no maker’s mark.

  For tests developed at General Electric, see MA.316371.012. For a score sheet relating to O’Connor’s dexterity test, see 1989.0710.70.

  References:

  J. O’Connor, Born That Way, Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Company, 1928.

  J. O’Connor and F. L. Keane, “A Measure of Mechanical Aptitude,” Personnel Journal, 1927, vol. 6 #1, pp. 15-24.

  C.H. Stoelting Com., Apparatus, Tests and Supplies, Supplement, Chicago; Stoelting, 1937, p. 43 (#42042). By this time, O’Connor was at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1927

  ID Number

  MA.316372.09

  catalog number

  316372.09

  accession number

  316372

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Record Booklets and Related Material for the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Tests

  Description

  The folder includes seventeen copies of the 1916 "Record Booklet for the Binet-Simon Test" and two undated printed copies of the "Record Sheet for the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Tests." Other documents include two copies of a 1928 mimeographed version of the Stanford-Binet test produced at the Worcester State Hospital, with two mimeographed sheets labeled "Stanford Analysis" and mimeographed instructions for giving the test; several documents on Stanford-Binet vocabulary; an undated printed record sheet for the Kuhlmann-Binet; bibliography on use of that test; and related materials.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1916-1928

  author

  Terman, Lewis M.

  publisher

  Houghton Mifflin Company

  ID Number

  MA.316371.061

  catalog number

  316371.061

  accession number

  316371

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Charpentier Calculimetre Multidisc Circular Slide Rule

  Description

  This brass circular slide rule is the size and shape of a pocket watch. The base is a silver-colored disc surrounding a rotating brass ring. The silver-colored indicator, which moves the brass ring and a forked pointer screwed to the center of the instrument, is attached to a small suspension ring. The indicator extends around the back of the instrument for use in reading the scales inscribed there.

  Three scales are on the front: two logarithmic scales on the outermost rings (the equivalent of D and C scales on a linear slide rule) and a two-part scale for square roots around the silver-colored circle at the center (corresponding to the A scale on a linear slide rule). Around the center is engraved: CALCULIMETRE G. CHARPENTIER; BREVETÉ S.G.D.G. The serial number 35 is engraved below "Charpentier." The back of the instrument bears a scale of equal parts, a logarithmic scale, and an innermost scale of equal parts. The indicator arm is engraved: FRANCE.

  Around 1882, G. Charpentier patented this design in France (as indicated by the "breveté" mark) and Great Britain. Several French instrument makers manufactured the device. In the United States, the Calculimetre was retailed for $5.00 by Keuffel & Esser from 1895 to 1927 and by Dietzgen from 1904 to 1931. According to the donor, John W. Olson, a Wall Street investment banker and collector of "unusual items" named Edward Hamilton Leslie purchased this slide rule around 1925.

  References: Robert K. Otnes, "The Charpentier Calculator," Journal of the Oughtred Society pilot issue, vol. 0, no. 0 (1991): 9–11; Florian Cajori, A History of the Logarithmic Slide Rule and Allied Instruments (New York: Engineering News Publishing Company, 1909), 94; Peter M. Hopp, Slide Rules: Their History, Models, and Makers (Mendham, N.J.: Astragal Press, 1999), 81, 161, 193; Catalogue & Price List of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 7th ed. (Chicago, 1904), 174; Catalogue of Keuffel & Esser Co., 33rd ed. (New York, 1909), 307.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1925

  ID Number

  1995.0261.01

  accession number

  1995.0261

  catalog number

  1995.0261.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Pantograph Sold by the Frederick Post Company, Model 1495

  Description

  A pantograph is an instrument used to duplicate drawings, at different scales if need be. This example consists of four wooden arms held together with pins and a screw-eye with a wooden anchor support under one arm. Two metal screw-eyes are placed in holes which are numbered from 1 to 10. There is a tracer point in one arm, but there no longer is a pencil point.

  A mark stamped on one of the wooden bars reads: 1495 (/) POSTS. Below this is stamped an image of an eagle clutching a shield that is stamped P. This trademark appeared on the first page of the Frederick Post Company Catalog in 1903. By 1921, another trademark was used.

  The pantograph is number 1495 in the catalog of The Frederick Post Company. The company was started by Frederick Post (1862-1936), a native of Hamburg who emigrated to the United States in 1885 and soon settled in Chicago. By the time of the 1900 U.S. Census, he was a manufacturer of artist's materials there. Post imported drawing instruments and slide rules as well as manufacturing them. Whether his firm made this pantograph is not known.

  The instrument is from the estate of the American inventor of tabulating machines Herman Hollerith, Jr. In 1889, Hollerith introduced a device for punching cards for tabulating machines that was called a pantograph card punch. This pantograph dates from after that invention.

  For information about the pantograph card punch, see MA.312896.

  References:

  U. S. Census 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930.

  Catalogs of the Frederick Post Company.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1903-1922

  ID Number

  1977.0114.04

  accession number

  1977.0114

  catalog number

  335636

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Geometric Model by A. Harry Wheeler, Rhombic Trapezoidal Dodecahedron

  Description

  This cut and folded tan paper model is a stellation of a rhombic trapezoidal dodecahedron with six rhombuses and six trapezoids as faces (for an example of the underlying form, see MA.304723.558). It has twelve points, each surrounded by four triangles. Each triangle is coplanar with three others that contribute to other points. A paper tag reads: DT 3. Another mark reads: 612/614. Another mark reads: May-20-1921. Another mark reads: Rhombic (/) Trapezoidal (/) Dodecahedron.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1921 05 20

  maker

  Wheeler, Albert Harry

  ID Number

  1979.0102.135

  accession number

  1979.0102

  catalog number

  1979.0102.135

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Psychological Test, Worcester Form Board

  Description

  Grace Helen Kent (1875-1973) spent the years from 1922 to 1926 as a psychologist at the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts. Kent had previously written on the use of geometric puzzles in psychology and also developed a word association test while working under A. J. Rosanoff at the Philadelphia Hospital for the Insane. In Worcester, she and psychologist David Shakow (1900-1981) sought to develop a version of the form board that would be suitable for clinical psychologists who needed to carry their equipment some distances to examine patients. They thought the form board suited to “immigrant, feeble-minded and psychotic subjects because of its self-explanatory nature” and also interesting enough to appeal to normal subjects.

  In 1925, Shakow and Kent published a description of the Worcester form board (see 316372.36 for a copy of the paper). It included six wooden boards. Two had nine depressions that each held one piece, two had five depressions that each held two pieces, and two had five depressions that each held three pieces.

  This object is a different form of the test. There is only one board that has six depressions in different shapes. These now hold eighteen pieces (three per depression). A cardboard box holds twelve pieces that also fit in the depressions, two per depression. Two drawings show the arrangement of the pieces. The one showing twelve pieces is labeled 2c, the one showing eighteen pieces 3c. It seems likely that this was an early form of the test as in later versions the pieces were painted to be color-coded.

  References:

  Kent, Grace H. “A Graded Series of Geometrical Puzzles,” Journal of Experimental Pshychology, 1, pp. 40-50.

  Kent, Grace H., & Shakow, D., “The Worcester Formboard Series,” Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology, 32, 1925, pp. 599-611.

  Shakow, David "Grace Helen Kent," Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 10, 1974, pp. 275–280.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1925

  ID Number

  MA.316372.01

  catalog number

  316372.01

  accession number

  316372

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Sheets, Behavior During Performance Tests

  Description

  The Educational Clinic of the College of the City of New York was established in 1913 to promote the social and educational adjustment of children. After World War I, it provided training for New York school teachers in the administration of newly developed psychological tests, as well as giving examinations for New York children. These forms represent that work. There are a total of six sheets of mimeographed paper designed to be used with two different tests. The forms provide numerical scales for recording student reactions to various aspects of the tests. They are not dated.

  Reference:

  Chapman, A. “Not According to Edison,” New York Tribune, May 22 1921, p. 6 VII [sic].

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1920s

  maker

  College of the City of New York

  ID Number

  1990.0034.028

  catalog number

  1990.0034.028

  accession number

  1990.0034

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Psychological Test, Revision of Army Alpha Examination. Form A

  Description

  During World War I, a team of American psychologists developed a program for testing the mental capacity of U.S. Army recruits. Soldiers who spoke English and could read took a test called Group Examination Alpha (for an example, see 1990.0334.01). This is revised version of that test, prepared by the psychologist Elsie Oschrin Bregman (1896-1969).

  Born in Newark, New Jersey, Elsie Oschrin attended Barnard College, graduating in 1918. She married metallurgist Adolph Bregman the following year, took his last name, and also began working at Macy’s department store developing a pioneering program for testing store employees. Bregman also continued her studies, completing a doctorate at Columbia University in 1922 that would be published as Studies in Industrial Psychology. From 1924 to 1934, she worked at the Psychological Corporation, which published this version of the Army Alpha. Bregman then went into private practice in New York.

  Reference:

  “Dr. Elsie Bregman, Psychologist, Dead,” New York Times, July 26, 1969, p. 25.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1925

  author

  Bergman, Elsie O.

  publisher

  Psychological Corporation

  ID Number

  1989.0710.06

  accession number

  1989.0710

  catalog number

  1989.0710.06

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Keuffel & Esser 4105 Webb's Stadia Cylindrical Slide Rule

  Description

  This instrument consists of a wooden cylinder covered with paper scales, wooden handles at the ends of the cylinder, and a metal sleeve lined with felt. The sleeve, which is painted maroon, holds the cylinder. Running the length of the sleeve are a slot 1.5 cm wide and a paper scale.

  The instrument is marked on the paper covering the cylinder: “WEBB’S STADIA SLIDE RULE”, (/) DESIGNED BY WALTER LORING WEBB, C. E. (/) MANUFACTURED BY KEUFFEL & ESSER CO., N.Y. It also is marked there: DIRECTIONS. SLIDE THE CYLINDER UNTIL ONE END OF THE CYLINDER IS SET AT THE DISTANCE MARK ON THE SCALE AND SO THAT THE GIVEN ANGLE OF ELEVATION ALSO COMES TO SOME PART OF THE SCALE. THE REQUIRED QUANTITY IS 1/10 (1/100 or 1/1000, AS SHOWN BY THE MARK ON CYLINDER) OF THE SCALE READING AT THAT ANGLE MARK.

  The stadia slide rule was used in topographical surveying to determine the elevation and geographical position of points and objects. Initially, a chain and compass or transit had been used to determine geographical position, with a level employed to obtain relative elevations. Greater efficiency in these measurements was then found by using a plane-table.

  In about 1864, the U.S. Lake Survey adopted a third system, first used in Italy about 1820. A stadia rod was placed at the point of interest and sighted through the telescope of a transit. The distance to this point was found by observing the portion of the graduated rod shown between certain cross-hairs of the telescope. To find the elevation of the point, one examined the vertical angle on the vertical circle of the transit when the telescope was aimed at a point on the stadia rod that was the same height off the ground as the telescope. A stadia slide rule was then used for data reduction.

  Keuffel & Esser of New York introduced a 20-inch linear stadia slide rule in 1895. It sold under various model numbers (1749, 4101, N-4101) until 1952. In 1897, the firm introduced a 50-inch linear stadia slide rule designed by Branch H. Colby of St. Louis. Colby's stadia slide rule (model number 1749-3, later 4125) sold until 1903. Textbook authors such as John Butler Johnson endorsed the rule, but it was awkward to carry in the field.

  Walter Loring Webb (1863–1941), a civil engineer who graduated from Cornell University and taught there and at the University of Pennsylvania, proposed a rule that had parallel scales arranged on a cylinder, reducing the length of the instrument to about 16 inches. K&E sold Webb's stadia slide rule for $5.00 from 1903 to 1923.

  One end of the sleeve is painted: 1803. This may be an inventory number from the University of Missouri's Department of Civil Engineering, which donated the instrument in 1972. The university began teaching civil engineering in 1859, and its School of Engineering was renamed the College of Engineering in 1877.

  See also 1983.0472.01. For circular stadia slide rules, see MA.336425, 1987.0221.01, and 2002.0282.01.

  References: John Butler Johnson, The Theory and Practice of Surveying, 16th ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1908), 237ff; Walter Loring Webb, Railroad Construction: Theory and Practice, 7th ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1922), 22–23; Wayne E. Feely, "K & E Slide Rules," The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association 49, no. 5 (1996): 50–52; Catalogue and Price List of Keuffel & Esser Co., 31st ed. (New York, 1903), 308; Mark C. Meade, "A History of the College of Engineering at the University of Missouri – Columbia," Archives of the University of Missouri, http://muarchives.missouri.edu/c-rg9-eng.html.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1903-1923

  maker

  Keuffel & Esser Co.

  ID Number

  MA.333636

  accession number

  300659

  catalog number

  333636

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Ladew Belting Strength Computer Circular Slide Rule by Whitehead and Hoag

  Description

  Leather belting produced from cowhide tanned in a solution with ground oak bark had been manufactured in New York City from the 19th century. By the end of the century, the firm of Fayerweather & Ladew in Glen Cove, N.Y., had developed methods of waterproofing leather belting so that it could be used in wet and humid conditions. After the death of Edward R. Ladew in 1905, the firm operated as Estate of Edward R. Ladew. It was renamed Edw. R. Ladew Co., Inc., about 1919, and in 1920 it was sold to Graton & Knight Manufacturing Co. of Worcester, Mass.

  To publicize its products, the company began distributing the Ladew Belting Strength Computer in 1914. This tan circular slide rule was made by the Whitehead & Hoag Company of Newark, N.J., under a June 6, 1905, patent for printing on pyroxylin (celluloid). It has a rotating disc and another rotating circular segment, pivoted about a metal rivet and attached to a rectangular celluloid base. The logarithmic scales allow computation of the horsepower a leather belt of known quality will transmit, given the width of the belt, the diameter of the pulley, and the rate of revolution of the pulley. The scales also make it possible to calculate the working strain of the belt, according to the kind of belt used and the horsepower transmitted. Instructions are provided on the back of the instrument.

  For a linear slide rule for computations relating to cloth belting, see the Computer for Belting and Computer for Shafting made by J. A. & W. Bird & Co. of Boston (1988.0323.02). For information on Whitehead & Hoag, see 1984.1080.01.

  References: Frank R. Norkross, A History of the New York Swamp (New York: The Chiswick Press, 1901), 103–107; Richard E. Roehm, "Process of Printing Upon Pyroxylin Materials" (U.S. Patent 791,503 issued June 6, 1905); Library of Congress, Catalogue of Copyright Entries, part 1, group 2, n.s., vol. 11, no. 8 (Washington, D.C., 1914): 754; "Ladew Belt Mill Sold," New York Times (February 13, 1920), 23; "Business Changes," Steam 25, no. 4 (May 1920): 145; accession file.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1914-1920

  maker

  Whitehead & Hoag Company

  ID Number

  1988.0350.01

  accession number

  1988.0350

  catalog number

  1988.0350.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

Pages