Discount Table for Use with a Comptometer

Manufacturers of adding and calculating machines distributed a variety of printed mathematical tables for users of their products. This example, printed in black on white cardboard, was prepared by Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company of Chicago, makers of the Comptometer adding machine. It was their Form No. 4 and lists the net result as a decimal of taking off two discounts in percent on an item sold. For example, the table indicates that if an item was selling at a 40% discount and then had an additional 10% discount on the price, the net price would be .54 times the original price. It was for use with a Comptometer. The form shows a Model J Comptometer, a machine produced in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Hence the date assigned.

A mark at the top of the table reads: Discount Table (/) showing net of $1.00 after discounts, shown (/) at top and side, are taken off (/) to be used in connection with the (/) COMPTOMETER (/) (TRADE MARK).

According to the donor, the table belonged to her aunt, the late Bessie Gold, who used it with a Burroughs calculator. Born in Russia about 1912, Gold came to the United States as a child. As an adult, she did office work in Richmond, Va.

For other tables distributed by Felt & Tarrant, see 1979.3074.09.

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