Object Details
maker
Lehigh Corporation
Description
This pinwheel, lever-set non-printing calculating machine has a black metal case painted black, and 12 levers that are moved forward and down to set the brass pinwheels. Digits are indicated to the left of each lever on the case, and a register at the top of the machine indicates the number entered. There levers have a zeroing bar. To the left of the levers is a divide/multiply lever. On the right side is an operating crank with a wooden handle.
At the front a movable carriage has a row of 12 windows on the left side that shows the digits on the revolution counter and a row of 20 windows on the right for showing totals. There is a carry in the revolution counter. Rotating thumbscrews at the ends of the carriage zero the registers on it. All three registers have sliding decimal markers. A mechanismat the front releases the carriage shift.
The machine rests on a metal base that has a metal handle at the front. The bottom has four rubber feet.
A mark stenciled on the front of the machine reads: LEHIGH (/) CALCULATOR. A mark stenciled on the back reads: LEHIGH (/) CALCULATOR (/) [...]ANUFACTURED & GUARANTEED (/) BY (/) THE LEHIGH (/) CORPORATION (/) NEW YORK, U.S.A. (/) FACTORY - NEWARK, N.J. (/) PATENTED (/) (OTHER PATENTS PENDING) (/) AUG. 4, 1921 (/) APR.25, 1922 (/) MAY 3, 1922. The serial number, stamped on the bottom, is: 8145.
The patent dates on the machine apparently refer to patents taken out by Hugo Enders of Lehighton, Pa., and then Belleville, N.J., in 1921 and 1922, although the dates do not match precisely in all cases. Enders took out patents relating to calculating machines and assigned them to the Lehigh Corporation of New York City, N.Y.
According to Typewriter Topics, the Lehigh calculating machine was introduced in about July of 1920, when it was manufactured in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. By 1922, the Lehigh Corporation had completed a new factory in Newark, New Jersey. It stopped selling machines the following year.
Compare Triumphator calculating machine MA.323655.
References:
“The Lehigh Calculating Machine,” Typewriter Topics, vol. 45 # 3, July, 1920, p. 260.
“Gaining the Lehigh Objective,” Typewriter Topics, vol. 50 #2, February, 1922, pp. 190, 193.
J. H. McCarthy, The American Digest of Business Machines, Chicago: American Exchange Service, 1924, p. 549.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of L. Leland Locke
date made
1922-1923
ID Number
MA.311946
catalog number
311946
accession number
155183
maker number
8145
Object Name
calculating machine
Physical Description
metal (overall material)
wood (overall material)
rubber (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 17.1 cm x 44.3 cm x 22 cm; 6 23/32 in x 17 7/16 in x 8 21/32 in
place made
United States: New York, New York City
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_692283