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
14
Page 1 of 1
-
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
-
Book, Instructional Workbook for Drafting
- Description
- In this publication, copyrighted in 1985, authors Paul Wallach and Dan Hearlihy describe a variety of drawing instruments. There is space for a few practice drawings. There is no attempt at computer-aided instruction, as there soon would be (see 1987.0589.07).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1985
- maker
- Wallach, Paul
- Hearlihy, Daniel A.
- ID Number
- 1987.0589.08
- accession number
- 1987.0589
- catalog number
- 1987.0589.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Pamphlet with Discs, Engineering Drawing 100, Computer Assisted Instruction
- Description
- By 1987, commercial packages were available to teach engineering drawing with the help of computers. This is one of them. It includes two 5 ¼” discs (1987.0589.07.01 and 1987.0589.02) stored with a leaflet (1987.0589.03) in a green plastic-covered case. Also included are an instructor’s guide (1987.0589.04) and a book of sample drawings (1987.0589.07.05). Students are shown drawing with drawing instruments, not with computers.
- The green softcover volume shown in the image is an earlier Hearlihy publication with museum number 1987.0589.08.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1987
- maker
- Nasman, Leonard O.
- Hearlihy, Daniel A.
- ID Number
- 1987.0589.07
- accession number
- 1987.0589
- catalog number
- 1987.0589.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Improved Calculator by Conkey And Loomis
- Description
- This instrument consists of 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 100 small holes marked evenly around its edge. These also are numbered 0 to 99. Two steel arms pivot at the center of the inner 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 smaller arm advances one digit, indicating hundreds. Hundreds apparently cannot be entered directly. The adder is painted black on the reverse side and has a support attached to the back so that it sits at an angle. A green paper label glued to the back gives directions for use.
- Census records list two men, one of whom may have been Alonzo Johnson, the co-inventor of this device. Both were machinists. Alonzo Johnson (no middle initial) was born 12 February 1828 in Bangor, Maine, the son of Louisa Underwood and Dolliver Johnson. Dolliver Johnson, a railroad engineer, became a superintendent of locomotive power on the Fitchburg Railroad in Massachusetts and then was associated with the Illinois Central in Illinois. His son Alonzo Johnson married in about 1850, and lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, with his wife, Sarah, and their children from at least 1870 through 1900. Census records also list Alonzo H. Johnson, born about 1828 in Connecticut, who was living with his wife, Hannah, also in Springfield, in 1870, 1880 and 1900.
- One of these Alonzo Johnsons took out eight patents. The first two were 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), #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).
- James A. Loomis, the co-inventor of this device, is probably the James Loomis listed in United States Census records for 1860, 1870, and 1880 as a resident of Springfield, Massachusetts. He is listed in 1860 as a 45-year-old wheelright, in 1870 as a 57-year-old carriage maker born in Massachusetts, and in 1880 as a 67-year-old retired carriage maker.
- The “Conkey” referred to in the name of the device may be Henry Conkey, who is listed as a 27-year-old machinist in Enfield, Massachusetts, in the 1860 Census and as a 35-year-old machinist in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the 1870 U.S. Census.
- References: James A. Loomis and Alonzo Johnson, “Improvement in Calculating Machines,” U.S. Patent 73732, 1868.
- P. Kidwell, “Adders Made and Used in the United States," Rittenhouse, 1994, 8:78-96.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1868
- maker
- Conkey & Loomis
- ID Number
- 1990.0318.01
- accession number
- 1990.0318
- catalog number
- 1990.0318.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
New Math Flash Cards, Addition-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 addition and subtraction problems that emerged.
- The set consists of flash cards showing sums written out horizontally on one side and differences written out horizontally on the other. A blank square indicates where the answer is to go. The cards are numbered from 1 to 81, with several missing and some duplicates. One unnumbered card may be card one. The cards are cut off at one corner, like punch cards. Another card lists on one side "Basic Addition Facts" for sums as large as 9 + 9, and "Basic Subtraction Facts" on the reverse side. Two further cards provide explanation.
- An explanation card for a similar set of flash cards for teaching multiplication and division is included, but none of these cards. Seven further cards, apparently from another set, give sums and differences written vertically.
- A mark on the cardboard box holding the cards reads: MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY (/) SPRINGFIELD (/) MASSACHUSETTS. Another mark reads: NEW MATH(/)FLASH CARDS. Another mark reads: ADDITION-SUBTRACTION. A further mark reads: [copyright] 1965. The set has the maker’s number: 7020.
- Compare 2005.0055.06, 2005.0055.07, 2005.0055.08, and 2005.0055.09.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1965
- date received
- 2003
- maker
- Milton Bradley Company
- ID Number
- 2005.0055.07
- catalog number
- 2005.0055.07
- accession number
- 2005.0055
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Porter Garden Telescope
- Description
- A skillful blending of art and science, the Porter Garden Telescope is a 6-inch f/4 Newtonian reflector cast in solid statuary bronze that can also serve as a sundial and as an elegant piece of domestic garden furniture. The slender blade of overlapping leaves holds the primary mirror, the prism, and the eyepiece in alignment. A bowl of lotus leaves embraces the mirror and a pair of cylindrical flowers forms the slow motion controls. The base is embellished with the names of Galileo, Kepler, and Newton. When not in use, the optical elements could be removed and taken indoors.
- Russell Porter, an Arctic explorer and Boston architect, designed the Garden Telescope. John A. Brashear provided the eyepieces and prisms. Wilbur Perry, an early member of Stellafane, figured the mirrors.
- This example is marked "The Porter Garden Telescope built and sold by Jones & Lamson Machine Co. Springfield Vermont. -U-S-A- / No. 49 / US Patent 1468973 Sept. 25, 1923." Christian La Roche acquired it in the early 1930s and gave it to the Smithsonian in 1992.
- The Garden Telescope has a split-ring equatorial mount. Porter developed this design in 1918 and later proposed it for the large telescope on Mt. Palomar. John Pierce, a member of the Springfield Telescope Makers, suggested "that the 200-inch mount as constructed is simply a glorified 'Garden Telescope,' with a lattice tube instead of the bar which supports the prism and ocular in the garden telescope."
- We suspect that fewer than 100 Garden Telescopes were ever made. This commercial failure can be partially attributed to cost. With a price tag ranging from $400 to $500, it was beyond the means of most potential buyers.
- Ref: John Tracy Spaight, "The Porter Garden Telescope," Rittenhouse 6 (1992): 97-102.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- after 1923-09-25
- maker
- Jones & Lamson Machine Co.
- Brashear, John A.
- ID Number
- 1992.0242.01
- catalog number
- 1992.0242.01
- accession number
- 1992.0242
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
U.S. Patent Office Model for an Improvement in Pantographs by Lucien F. Bruce and Newlan J. Wolcott
- Description
- Lucien F. Bruce and Newlan J. Wolcott received U.S. Patent 118,902 for this “Improvement in Pantographs.” This is their patent model. It consists of eight metal bars, two 21.6 cm. long and six 11 cm. long. Holes in the bars and suitable pivot points allow one to alter the enlargement or reduction of the image. A pivot-post on the right side at the center (now missing) held the instrument to a drawing-board or table at the desired height. To enlarge drawings, once the bars were suitably set, a tracer-point was placed at the joint nearest the pivot-post. The drawing point was on the same line, at the joint furthest from the pivot-post. To reduce drawings, the tracer point and drawing point were reversed. No points survive.
- Lucien F. Bruce (1835-1910) and Newlan J. Wolcott were employees of the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bruce spent over fifty years at the Armory and took out a variety of patents. City directories indicate that Wolcott spent the years from 1859 to 1872 in Springfield and suggest that he eventually moved to Lowell, Massachusetts.
- References:
- US Patent 118902, September 12, 1871.
- “Obituaries,” Machinery, vol. 16, May, 1910, p. 784.
- City Directories for Springfield and for Lowell in Massachusetts.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1871
- date patented
- 1871 09 12
- maker
- Bruce, Lucien F.
- Wolcott, Newlan J.
- ID Number
- MA.309334
- catalog number
- 309334
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 118902
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Model for an Adder with Carry by Alonzo Johnson
- Description
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1868
- patentee
- Johnson, Alonzo
- maker
- Johnson, Alonzo
- ID Number
- MA.252695
- accession number
- 49064
- catalog number
- 252695
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Book, Drafting & Industrial Tech Supply & Software Catalog 87
- Description
- This softcover volume shows the product of the drawing instrument dealer Hearlihy & Company for 1987. An image of computer-aided instruction (though not computer-aided design) is on the cover.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1987
- maker
- Hearlihy & Company
- ID Number
- 1987.0589.10
- accession number
- 1987.0589
- catalog number
- 1987.0589.10
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Quizmo
- Description
- This game includes 40 cards marked with a five-by-five array of one and two digit numbers on both sides. An additional 35 problem cards (each divisible into three parts, but undivided) show a total of 100 addition problems on one side and 100 subtraction problems on the other. Numerous red flat square markers are used in play. Players can do either subtraction problems or addition problems.
- The rules are like those of bingo. A problem card is shown, players figure out the correct answer and, if the number is on their game card, cover the corresponding space. The first player to cover five spaces in a straight row - across, up-and-down, or diagonally - calls out "Quizmo." Answers are checked against the answers on the problem cards that have been used. If they are correct, the player wins the round; if not ,play continues. The first player to win a set number of rounds wins the game.
- In addition to the pieces described, the game has two cards with basic addition and subtraction facts, a card with playing directions, a card listing the parts to the game, and a card listing "4 steps to mastery of basic facts." The cards also could be used as flash cards.
- A mark on the cardboard box reads: QUIZMO (/) THE FUN GAME OF (/) ARITHMETIC (/) ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION; MILTON BRADLEY (/) COMPANY (/) SPRINGFIELD (/) MASSACHUSETTS. Another mark there reads: MADE IN U. S. A. Still another mark reads: COPYRIGHT 1958 BY MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY.
- According to trademark records, QUIZMO as a term for a board game was first used in commerce in 1949 and registered in 1954 by Alice R. Huff of Concord, California. The trademark was renewed in 1974 and has since expired.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1960
- maker
- Milton Bradley Company
- ID Number
- 2005.0055.05
- catalog number
- 2005.0055.05
- accession number
- 2005.0055
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Geometric Models in Case, Geometrical Surfaces and Solids
- Description
- Models of geometrical shapes and solids were used not only in the mathematics classroom but by psychologists. This set, made by Milton Bradley Company, was used by the Psychology department at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.
- The set includes twenty-one wooden geometric shapes in a wooden case, with lid. A paper legend is secured to the inside of the lid which identifies the pieces. The legend indicates that there are 44 pieces in a complete set. Missing from the set are the shapes for numbers: 2, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15 and 23-44. Duplicates of numbers 1, 5, 16, and 21 are in the set. A wooden stylus is stored with it.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- used at
- Skidmore College
- maker
- Milton Bradley Co.
- ID Number
- MA.311423.12
- catalog number
- 311423.12
- accession number
- 311423
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Kappa Mu Epsilon Certificate of Recognition
- Description
- In April 1981 in Springfield, Missouri, Kappa Mu Epsilon celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. At this celebration KME, a mathematics honor society with chapters at institutions that emphasize undergraduate mathematics programs, named fifty members as Distinguished Members. Sister Helen Sullivan was one of those so honored.
- In about 1936 Sister Helen Sullivan organized Euclid’s Circle, a mathematics club at Mount St. Scholastica College. In 1940 she founded the Kansas Gamma Chapter of Kappa Mu Epsilon there. Sullivan often served as the faculty sponsor of her local chapter of KME, and in 1967 the alumnae of that chapter established the Sister Helen Sullivan scholarship in her honor. On the national level Sullivan served as KME’s historian in the years 1943–47, and as an assistant editor of its journal, The Pentagon, during those years and again from 1961–70.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1981
- maker
- Kappa Mu Epsilon
- ID Number
- 1993.3019.03
- nonaccession number
- 1993.3019
- catalog number
- 1993.3019.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Hough's Security Cash Recorder
- Description
- In the late 19th century, as American shopkeepers hired strangers to work in their stores, they showed a new concern for keeping track of retail transactions. Azel Clarence Hough (1859-1946), the son of a creamery owner in South Butler, New York, took out a range of patents for the design and improvement of cash drawers between 1892 and 1899 (U.S. patents 484501, 486107, D22024, 534795 and 618034). His ideas served as the basis of the products of the Hough Cash Recorder Company of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
- This example of Hough’s Security Cash Recorder is a large oak box with an oak lid. At the front on the right is a lock for the cash drawer; the drawer is on the lower left front. On top is an opening that shows a roll of paper. Salesclerks were required to enter a total on this paper roll and advance it in order to open the cash drawer.
- This model is quite similar to the Hough Security Cash Register No. 70 shown in an advertisement reproduced in Crandall and Robins, p. 318. This machine sold for $15. Hough Cash Recorder Company advertised in Hardware Dealer’s magazine as late as June, 1906. However, its products were soon outpaced by the autographic registers sold by NCR.
- In the early 20th century, Hough became interested in the manufacture of wooden blinds, and took out several related patents. He first manufactured shades in South Butler, then in Worcester, Massachusetts, and then in Janesville, Wisconsin. The Hough Shade Corporation he formed survives under the name of Hufcor.
- References:
- Dorothy Wiggins, “Town of Butler Agricultural & Comprehensive Plan," South Butler Public Forum – September 15, 2008, pp. 1–2.
- American Lumberman, vol. 1, 1940, p. 58.
- Richard R. Crandall and Sam Robins, The Incorruptible Cashier, vol. 2, Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press, 1990, pp. 316–318.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1895
- maker
- Hough Cash Recorder Company
- ID Number
- 1983.0881.01
- accession number
- 1983.0881
- catalog number
- 1983.0881.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Intertech Bow Compass Sold by Hearlihy & Co.
- Description
- This blue zinc alloy instrument has a black plastic handle. Black plastic adjusting bolts set the width of the instrument and the length of the needle and pencil points. The front of the handle is marked with the letter H. The bolt on the silver metal bow screw is marked: MADE IN W. GERMANY – PATENT. A fitted clear and black plastic box has a black and white plastic tube with two replacement pencil leads. The top of the box is marked in gold: H (/) Hearlihy & Co (/) 504.
- Intertech Drawing Instruments (Zeichengeräte) of Brunn, West Germany, made this compass in 1987, according to the donor. The head of the firm, Günther Partes, received U.S. patents in 1979 for a compass with a toothed mechanism for making adjustments and in 1982 for the leg design of this compass. The second concept received West German patent number 2,922,999 in 1979. Hearlihy & Co., a Springfield, Ohio, supplier of drafting instruments and developer of technology education curriculum modules, distributed this compass as model number 504. In 2012, Hearlihy offered a similar compass, possibly made by Intertech, for $7.10. Compare to 1987.0589.02.
- References: Günther Partes, "Compass with Fine Adjustment" (U.S. Patent 4,163,322 issued August 7, 1979), and "Holder for Lead Insert and Needle for a Compass" (U.S. Patent 4,327,491 issued May 4, 1982); Hearlihy & Co. online catalog, http://www.hearlihy.com; accession file.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1987
- maker
- Intertech Drawing Instruments
- ID Number
- 1987.0589.01
- accession number
- 1987.0589
- catalog number
- 1987.0589.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Filter Your Results
Click to remove a filter:
