Object Details
maker
Burroughs Adding Machine Company
Description
This full-keyboard printing manual machine has a metal case painted black with a green keyboard. It has nine columns of black and white plastic keys, with nine keys in each column. The odd-numbered keys are concave and the even-numbered keys are flat. Complementary digits are indicated. Ten windows at the front show the sum of numbers entered. A crank at the left zeros the digits in these windows. A single key in the upper left corner controls the numeral wheel seen through the tenth window.
The machine is marked on the front, underlined: Burroughs Calculator. The serial number, on a plate on the bottom, is: 5-660768. It is marked on the back: Burroughs (/) THIS MACHINE PROTECTED BY U.S. AND FOREIGN PATENTS.
Burroughs Adding Machine Company introduced the Burroughs Calculator in about 1911 to compete with the Comptometer. It sold as the Burroughs Class 5 from 1918.
Compare MA.308344 and 1986.3039.01..
Reference:
American Digest of Business Machines, 1924, pp. 70, 71. This suggests that the machine is a Burroughs model 5205.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1920
ID Number
1990.0316.04
accession number
1990.0316
catalog number
333873
Object Name
adding machine
Physical Description
plastic (overall material)
metal (overall material)
rubber (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 13.7 cm x 24.8 cm x 30.2 cm; 5 13/32 in x 9 3/4 in x 11 7/8 in
place made
United States: Michigan, Detroit
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Adding Machines
Science & Mathematics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_690201