Object Details
maker
Arthur Burkhardt
Description
The manufacture of calculating machines, which began in France, widened to include Germany in the late 1870s with the introduction of Burkhardt arithmometers. This stepped drum, manually operated non-printing instrument is a somewhat later form of Burkhardt’s machine. It has eight German silver levers for setting numbers; an operating crank right of the levers; and an addition & multiplication / subtraction & division lever left of the levers. The operating crank folds down so that the lid closes. Left of this a small compartment with a slate cover that holds a black knob.
When one pushes up the addition & multiplication/subtraction & division lever, it pushes back a set of ten gears that are linked to shafts coming from the stepped drums. In this position, these gears turn the gears of the result register clockwise (if looked at from the inside), and the number in the result register increases. If the lever is down, the gears on the shafts turn the gears of the result register counterclockwise, so that the number in the result register decreases.
Behind the levers is a carriage with a nine-window revolution register and a 16-window result register. Both registers have thumbscrews for setting numbers. A small crank on the right side of the machine clears the revolution register and another crank on the left side clears the result register. When these cranks are in use, a brass bar extends out the sides of the carriage. Holes for decimal markers are between the levers and between the windows of the registers. Two brass decimal markers fit in these holes. When the entry in the result register becomes negative (as it might in subtraction or division), a bell rings. It rings again if a number is added so the result is once again zero or positive.
A mark on the top of the machine, left of the entry levers, reads: Arth.Burkhardt (/) Glashütte(Sa) (/) Nr557.
A mark on the outside of the wooden case reads: RECHEN- (/) MASCHINE. Glued to the inside of the lid of the wooden case is a paper label with operating instructions in German. Written in ink on this sheet is the mark: Made in Germany.
Further instructions received with the machine are stored separately. The last date indicated on the instructions received with this machine is 1886. The instructions are stamped WEIGHTS AND MEASURES (/) U.S.C.&G. SURVEY, with an illegible date.
A mark on the front edge of the case reads: B.S.219. The machine apparently was transferred from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey to the National Bureau of Standards some time after the latter organization was founded in 1901. From there it came to the Smithsonian.
Burkhardt exhibited at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. “More than 500 machines have been supplied to all parts of the world,” the maker claimed at that time.
Compare MA.313158, MA.313519, MA.323624 and MA.323597.
References:
E. Martin, The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen), trans. P. A. Kidwell and M. R. Williams, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, pp. 78–82.
German Exhibition, Group 21, Special Catalogue of the Collective Exhibition of Scientific Instruments and Appliances . . . ., 1893, p. 15.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Transfer from US National Bureau of Standards
date made
1895
ID Number
MA.313158
accession number
177275
catalog number
313158
Object Name
calculating machine
Physical Description
wood (overall material)
brass (overall material)
slate (overall material)
german silver (overall material)
steel (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 10.5 cm x 58.6 cm x 18.4 cm; 4 1/8 in x 23 1/16 in x 7 1/4 in
place made
Germany: Saxony, Glashütte
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Calculating Machines
Science & Mathematics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1196338