Object Details
maker
Grant Calculating Machine Company
Description
This lever-set, non-printing manually operated connection pawl calculating machine has an open iron frame with steel and brass parts and paper labels. Five pins at the front of the machine slide to set numbers. Next to each pin is a thin strip of paper, or a slot for such a paper. One strip is missing and another, partly missing. Moving back a pin drives back a toothed rack.
Behind the racks is a movable carriage with 11 gears on it. A paper strip with digits on it is next to each gear. Turning a crank at the front right of the machine moves the racks back to engage the gears, turning each one of them in proportion to the number set. When the adding frame reaches the end of its backward movement, a cam set on the crank shaft at the front raises all the register gears a little so that the gears are disengaged from the racks and not moved in the return motion.
One tooth on each gear extends so that when the gear has made a complete rotation, it engages one of the carry teeth arranged on a spiral shaft above the carriage. As the adding racks return to position, the shaft revolves and the carry tooth pushes the next gear up by one, resulting in a carry. Releasing the carriage and turning it one revolution zeros the result shaft.
This machine is from the collection of Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company. A paper tag attached to the object reads: 31. Another one reads in ink: Grant (/) Multiplier.
Compare MA.310647, MA.311941, and MA.335633.
References:
Machinery, October, 1895.
E. Martin, The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen), trans. P.A. Kidwell and M.R. Williams, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, p. 77.
G. B. Grant, "Calculating-Machine," U.S. Patent 605,288, June 7, 1898.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Victor Comptometer Corporation
date made
1896
ID Number
MA.323615
catalog number
323615
accession number
250163
maker number
0853
Object Name
calculating machine
Physical Description
iron (overall material)
steel (overall material)
brass (overall material)
paper (overall material)
rubber (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 20.8 cm x 24.5 cm x 29 cm; 8 3/16 in x 9 21/32 in x 11 13/32 in
place made
United States: Massachusetts
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_690742