Computers & Business Machines

• Camera-Ready Proofs for Illustrations for the Textbook First Course in Algebra

  Description

  In 1907, A. Harry Wheeler published a textbook with Little, Brown, and Company of Boston, Massachusetts. The title was First Course in Algebra, with Eight Thousand Examples Including Three Thousand Mental Exercises. These are the camera-ready proofs for the illustrations in the book. Two are dated January 2, 1907. Wheeler initialed the proofs and sometimes added annotations. In general, the illustrations in the book are either a third to a quarter of the size of the proofs.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1907

  maker

  Wheeler, Albert Harry

  ID Number

  1979.3002.115

  catalog number

  1979.3002.115

  nonaccession number

  1979.3002

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Grammar School Arithmetic

  Date made

  1904

  publisher

  State Textbook Committee

  maker

  California State Text-book Committee

  ID Number

  ZZ.RSN83576K87

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Grammar School Arithmetic

  Date made

  1904

  publisher

  California State Text-book Committee

  maker

  California State Text-book Committee

  ID Number

  ZZ.RSN83576K97

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Osborn's Mechanical Paradox

  Description

  This brass device, made in the size of a paperweight for exhibition purposes, includes a hollow round base with gearing around the top inside edge, a cover for the base which contains a long shaft at the center and three identical piles of three rings on top, each pile linked to a small gear on the underside. Each of these small gears links to the gearing on the edge of the base. Three knobs around the edge of the cover allow one to rotate it. Six metal rings that differ in height and radius fit on the cover onto different spots (the innermost fits the flat top of the cover, the other five various spots on the piles). Rotating the cover causes the rings to rotate in differing directions at differing speeds.

  A metal plaque glued to the side of the base reads: OSBORN’S (/) MECHANICAL PARADOX (/) MODEL BY F.C. OSBORN CO. (/) DETROIT, MICH.

  According to an article in Scientific American, Francis C. Osborn of Detroit invented the mechanical paradox in 1890.

  Osborn is also remembered as the spouse of Laura Freele Osborn (1866-1955), a suffragette, a longstanding member of the Detroit School Board, and the first woman to hold elective office in Detroit.

  References:

  “Invention New and Interesting: A Department Devoted to Pioneer Work in the Arts,” Scientific American, December 9, 1916, vol. 115, p. 533.

  Accession file 1980.0580.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1900

  maker

  F. C. Osborn Company

  F. C. Osborn Company

  ID Number

  1980.0580.01

  catalog number

  1980.0580.01

  accession number

  1980.0580

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Telescope

  Description

  This reflecting telescope, with a 24-inch aperture, silvered-glass primary mirror, was designed for astronomical photography, and made by George Willis Ritchey, head of the instrument shop at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. Starting in 1900, Ritchey used it to take unprecedented images of nebulas, novas and other astronomical objects. Ritcheylater made similar but much larger telescopes for the Mount Wilson Observatory in California.

  Ref: D. J. Mills, "George Willis Ritchey and the Development of Celestial Photography," American Scientist 54 (1966): 64-94.

  Location

  Currently on loan

  date made

  ca 1900

  maker

  Ritchey, George Willis

  ID Number

  PH.328000

  accession number

  270028

  catalog number

  328000

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• Book, The Civil Engineer's Pocket-Book

  Description

  This is a book of formulae and tables compiled by civil engineer John C. Trautwine.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1900

  maker

  Trautwine, John C.

  ID Number

  1986.3110.13

  nonaccession number

  1986.3110

  catalog number

  1986.3110.13

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• blocks, geometry

  date made

  ca 1900

  ID Number

  DL.65.0792A

  catalog number

  65.0792A

  accession number

  258259

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Microscope

  Description

  This is a compound monocular with a black cuff that allows it to move vertically on a brass pole. It was owned by Richard Halsted Ward (1837-1917), a noted medical microscopist, or his son, Henry B. Ward, a pioneering parasitologist.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  mid 19th century

  ID Number

  MG.M-09728

  accession number

  174919

  catalog number

  M-09728

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Keuffel & Esser Dividing Engine for Linear Rules

  Description

  This is one of two linear dividing engines presented to the Smithsonian in 1971 by Keuffel & Esser Company of Morristown, New Jersey. It is a precision machine for the graduation of the finely ruled lines on engineers’ flat scales. It was built by Keuffel & Esser after 1900 and was used in their Hoboken, New Jersey, factory through 1970.

  A mark on the base reads: 209. A mark on the switch box reads: UNIVERSAL (/) ENCLOSED SWITCH (/) UNIVERSAL (/) P1233.

  Parts stored separately include two weights, a long metal holder for objects being divided, five metal feet (painted green), and metal clamps that hold objects to the holder.

  Reference:

  Accession file 306012.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  after 1900

  maker

  Keuffel & Esser Co.

  ID Number

  MA.335266

  catalog number

  335265

  accession number

  306012

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Slate Pencils, Box of 5

  Description

  These five slate pencils are wrapped in paper decorated like the American flag and stored in a cardboard box with an American flag design. In the 19th century, schoolchildren used pencils made from a soft stone or slate to write letters and numbers on their slates, personal-sized blackboards. Students wiped away their work after it was checked by the teacher; reusable slates were thus less expensive than large quantities of paper, and slate pencils were generally more available than chalk. In the United States, slate pencils were manufactured at least as early as 1844 and at least as late as the 1910s.

  Edith R. Meggers of Washington, D.C., bequeathed this box of pencils to the Smithsonian in 1974. The dates of other objects in her bequest suggest these pencils were made around 1900. Meggers worked in the Building Technology Division of the National Bureau of Standards in the 1950s and 1960s. She and her husband endowed the William F. and Edith R. Meggers Project Award of the American Institute of Physics, which funds projects for the improvement of high-school physics teaching in the United States.

  References: Early Office Museum, "History of the Lead Pencil," http://www.officemuseum.com/pencil_history.htm; Peter Davies, "Writing Slates and Schooling," Australasian Historical Archaeology 23 (2005): 63–69; Charlotte E. Moore, "Meggers, William Frederick," Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography (2008), http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830902894.html; Edith R. Meggers, Selected Bibliography on Building Construction and Maintenance, 3rd ed., National Bureau of Standards Building Materials and Structures Report 140 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1959).

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1900

  ID Number

  MA.335277

  accession number

  314637

  catalog number

  335277

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Book, Plane Geometry

  Description

  By the early twentieth century, modern textbooks had replaced Euclid as a way of studying basic plane geometry. This title was by Edward Routledge Robbins (1870-1941). A New Jersey native, Robbins graduated from Princeton University in 1894 with high honors in mathematics. He would later receive a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He began his teaching career – and his textbook authorship – as a master at the Lawrenceville Seminary in New Jersey. He would continue it – and write this book – while on the faculty of the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. After a spell at the John Wanamaker store in New York from 1918 until 1922, he was associated with the Swarthmore Preparatory School, the schools in Jenkintown, Pa., and finally Temple University. Other textbooks he wrote concerned algebra, practical arithmetic, plane trigonometry, and solid geometry.

  A signature in the front of the book reads: N. S. Tirnbrook (/) 23rd St. Y.M.C.A. A list in pencil opposite this (inside the front cover) appears to be a list of presidents of the United States through William McKinley. There are occasional pencil markings in the text.

  Reference:

  “Edward R. Robbins: An Instructor in Mathematics at Temple University Ten Years,” New York Times, November 8, 1941, p. 19.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1906

  publisher

  American Book Company

  maker

  Robbins, Edward Rutledge

  ID Number

  1986.3133.02

  nonaccession number

  1986.3133

  catalog number

  1986.3133.02

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Magnetometer

  Description

  The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington designed this theodolite magnetometer around 1904, combining the best features of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey magnetometer and that used by the Magnetic Survey of India. This example is marked "BAUSCH, LOMB, SAEGMULLER CO. Rochester, N.Y. 4594" and "C.I. MAGNETOMETER NO. 4." It was made in 1907 and, with tripod, cost $620.50.

  Ref: J. A. Fleming, "Comparisons of Magnetic Observatory Standards by the Carnegie Institution of Washington," Terrestrial Magnetism 16 (1911): 61-84, on 62-63.

  Bausch, Lomb, Saegmuller Co., Astronomical, Engineering and Other Instruments of Precision (Rochester, N.Y., 1907), pp. 41-43.

  Carnegie Institution of Washington, Land Magnetic Observations, 1905-1910 (Washington, D.C., 1912).

  Location

  Currently not on view

  Date made

  1907

  maker

  Bausch, Lomb, Saegmuller Co.

  ID Number

  PH.316516

  accession number

  225703

  catalog number

  316516

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Carrington's Patent Rolling Parallel Rule

  Description

  A 14" trapezoidal mahogany frame with metal end pieces covers two mahogany rollers that rotate on metal shafts. A paper label is marked: CARRINGTON'S PATENT PARALLEL RULER, FOR COUNTING HOUSES, &C. The label is decorated with an eagle over a shield with arrows in its claws. The eagle's beak holds a banner marked: E PLURIBUS UNUM.

  On April 14, 1832, James Carrington of Wallingford, Conn., patented a parallel ruler that was later manufactured by William Hill of Wallingford. The rollers were raised in order to prevent ink from smearing as the ruler was moved across a drawing. In 1849 the U.S. House of Representatives ordered six dozen of the rulers from R. Farnham, a stationer in Washington, D.C., for $2.30 per dozen. This suggests the rules were used relatively widely for a significant period of time. Before he built a dam and factory in Wallingford around 1830, Carrington was a supervisor and inspector at the Harpers Ferry and Springfield armories.

  References: "American Patents," The Repertory of Patent Inventions 15 (1833): 24; "Power, Factories, Invention," in Centennial of Meriden: June 10–16, 1906 (Meriden, Conn.: Journal Publishing Co., 1906), 245; U.S. House of Representatives, Contracts for Stationery, 31st Congress, 1st Session, Miscellaneous, No. 16, December 31, 1849 (Washington, D.C., 1850), 16–17; Hiram Williams Beckwith, History of Montgomery County, Together With Historic Notes on the Wabash Valley (Chicago, 1881), 246; Merritt Roe Smith, Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology (Cornell: University Press, 1977), 203, 207, 229.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  mid 19th century

  patentee

  Carrington, James

  ID Number

  MA.293320.2818

  accession number

  293320

  catalog number

  293320.2818

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Ship Model, Lighthouse Tender Joseph Henry

  Description

  This model represents the U.S. Lighthouse Tender Joseph Henry, a side-wheeled steamer built by Howard & Company in Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 1880. This 180-foot-long vessel was built for service along the nation’s inland waterways. Lighthouse tenders served both coastal and inland areas by delivering supplies, fuel, news, and relief and maintenance crew to lighthouses and lightships. They also maintained aids to navigation, including markers identifying channels, shoals, and obstructions. Based out of Memphis, the Joseph Henry worked along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers until 1904.

  The vessel’s namesake, Joseph Henry, was America’s foremost scientist in the 19th century. His expertise was in the field of electromagnetism. Henry was a professor at the College of New Jersey (Princeton) when he was named the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, a position he held from 1846 until his death in 1878. He also served on the U.S. Lighthouse Board (1852-78), and implemented various improvements in lighting and signaling during his tenure. This lighthouse tender was named in his honor at its launching two years after his death.

  Date made

  1880

  1962

  used

  late 19th century

  ID Number

  TR.321486

  catalog number

  321486

  accession number

  245714

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Keuffel & Esser Co. Hard Rubber Irregular Curve or French Curve

  Description

  This black hard rubber curve has one opening and numerous scallops on the edges. A mark near the bottom reads: KEUFFEL & ESSER (/) N.Y. This curve is similar to number 19 in catalog entry 1820 in the K & E Catalogue. However, it has an additional notch on the upper left side.

  The curve came to the Smithsonian from the Department of Mathematics of Brown University.

  Reference:

  Keuffel & Esser Company, Catalogue, 1890, p. 140, 1909, p. 206-207. Hard rubber irregular curves are not listed in the 1921 or 1936 catalogs.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca

  ca 1900

  Associated Name

  Keuffel & Esser Co.

  maker

  Keuffel & Esser Co.

  ID Number

  MA.304722.11

  accession number

  1973304722

  catalog number

  304722.11

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Robertson-Amsler Polar Planimeter

  Description

  This chrome-plated instrument has a 5" pole arm with a small cylindrical weight at the end. The 7" tracer arm is adjustable and has an L-shaped tracer point, so that the point is offset from the arm. The measuring wheel is chrome and the vernier is brass. The instrument has no registering dial. A point extending from the carriage holding the measuring wheel allows the user to turn the planimeter vertically and use the other end of the tracer point. Compare to 1981.0301.01.

  Most of the leather has flaked off of the wooden case, which has green fabric on the bottom. The case is lined with burgundy velvet. The instrument resembles the Robertson-Amsler planimeter shown in Hawkins's Indicator Catechism (New York, 1903), 132. A worn instruction card (MA.302380.01) received with the object in 1972 describes it as an "averaging planimeter," which is how Robertson advertised the instrument in 1897.

  Hine & Robertson of New York City made steam-engine indicators and sold planimeters from the 1880s to 1897. The firm was then renamed James L. Robertson & Sons and remained in operation until at least 1910. This device is smaller than the Hine-Robertson planimeter described by Olaus Henrici.

  The instrument was received at the Museum in 1972.

  References: Advertisement for Robertson-Thompson Indicator, Power 17, no. 2 (February 1897): 25; John Walter, "More Information," The Engine Indicator, Canadian Museum of Making, http://www.archivingindustry.com/Indicator/sourceinfo.htm; Olaus Henrici, "On Planimeters," in Report of the Sixty-fourth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (London, 1894), 515–516; "Hine and Robertson's Planimeter," The Electrician 26 (February 6, 1891): 432.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1900

  maker

  James L. Robertson & Sons

  ID Number

  MA.333766

  accession number

  302380

  catalog number

  333766

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Locke Adder

  Description

  The first American-made adder to enjoy modest commercial success was developed by Clarence E. Locke (1865-1945). A native of Edgerton, Wisconsin, he graduated from Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, in 1892. Locke worked for a time as a civil engineer in Minnesota, and then joined his father operating a lumber yard in Kensett, Iowa.

  This version of the device has a metal base with grooves for nine sliding metal rods that move crosswise. Each rod represents a digit of a number being added. Protruding knobs on the rods represent different numerals. The rods are held in place by bronze-colored metal covers that extend over the right and left thirds of the instrument. When the device is in zero position, all the rods are in their rightmost position.

  Numbers are entered by sliding rods to the left, and the result appears in numbers immediately to the left of the cover on the right. The rods are color-coded to distinguish units of money. They lock when depressed, so that they will not slide if the instrument is tilted. The locking mechanism, the color-coded rods, and the oval shape of the knobs on the rods are all improvements featured in Locke’s second calculating machine patent, taken out in 1905. There is no carry mechanism. The base of is covered with green cloth.

  The instrument is marked on the right cover: C. E. LOCKE (/) MFG. Co. It also is marked: KENSETT, IOWA. [/] U.S.A. It is marked on the left cover: THE (/) LOCKE (/) ADDER. It also is marked: PATENTED DEC. 24. 1901 (/) JAN. 3 1905. This example came to the Smithsonian from the collection of L. Leland Locke.

  The instrument resembles MA.323619, but it has green rather than red cloth on the bottom and has no surrounding wooden box. Also compare to MA.321327.

  References: C. E. Locke, “Calculating Machine,” U.S. Patent 689680, December 24, 1901.

  C. E. Locke, “Calculating Machine,” U.S. Patent 779088, January 3, 1905.

  Robert Otnes, “Sliding Bar Calculators,” ETCetera #11 (June 1990): pp. 6-8.

  P. Kidwell, “Adders Made and Used in the United States,” Rittenhouse, 8, (1994): pp. 78-96.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1905

  maker

  C. E. Locke Manufacturing Company

  ID Number

  MA.155183.29

  catalog number

  155183.29

  accession number

  155183

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Comptometer Model B, 1/20 Fraction

  Description

  This full-keyboard non-printing adding machine has a metal top and mechanism, eight columns of color-coded octagonal plastic keys with complementary digits indicated, and a zeroing crank on the right side. The second column of keys from the right has only one key in it. The keys are alternately concave (odd digits) and flat (even digits). Nine rows of number wheels in front of the keyboard indicate the result. The second number wheel from the right has only zeros and ones on it. The sides and base of the machine are missing. It is marked on a metal tag screwed to the top at the back: TRADE COMPTOMETER MARK. The last patent date on the tag is: AUG.9.04.

  This is a forerunner of the Model C Comptometer for British currency (MA.323652).

  Reference:

  Felt & Tarrant, Accession Journal 1991.3107.06.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1908

  maker

  Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company

  ID Number

  MA.323653

  catalog number

  323653

  accession number

  250163

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Heliostat

  Description

  A heliostat throws sunlight where it might be used for photography or scientific observations. This simple and inexpensive example was designed in the mid-1870s by Rueul Keith, a mathematician who worked for the U.S. Naval Observatory. It was made by Edward Kubel, a German mechanic who arrived in Washington, D.C., in 1849, and went to work making and mending instruments needed by such agencies as the U.S. Coast Survey, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Army Medical Museum. It was made for Samuel Pierpont Langley, the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and used in the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. A tag reads: “EDWARD KUBEL / MATH. INST. MAKER / WASHINGTON, D.C.”

  Ref: D. J. Warner, “Keith’s American Heliostat,” Rittenhouse 10 (1996): 58-64.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  late 19th century

  maker

  Kubel, Edward

  ID Number

  PH.314879

  accession number

  211531

  catalog number

  314879

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Pamphlet, Rapid Mechanical Calculation

  Description

  This illustrated pamphlet describes the advantages of using the duplex Comptometer in the modern business world..

  For a related letter, see MA.304826.060. The document was received with a later model of the Comptometer (see MA.335357).

  Reference:

  P. A. Kidwell, “American Scientists and Calculating Machines: From Novelty to Commonplace,” Annals of the History of Computing, 12, 1990, pp. 31-40.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  ca 1904

  ca 1905

  1905

  maker

  Felt & Tarrant Mfg. Co.

  ID Number

  MA.304826.64

  accession number

  304826

  catalog number

  304826.64

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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