Object Details
distributor
Coxhead, Ralph C.
maker
Mercedes-Bureau-Maschinen-Gesellschaft
Description
This full-keyboard electric proportional rod calculating machine has an iron and steel frame painted black and 13 columns of round plastic keys. At the bottom of each column of keys is a red key that zeros the digit in that column. The keyboard is painted green. Numbers entered on the keys appear in a row of windows under the keyboard that shows 13 number dials.
At the front of the machine is a row of 16 windows showing the result, a row of eight windows showing the dials of the revolution counter, and another row of 16 dials that may be used to accumulate totals. Small finger knobs are in front of these dials. These three rows of dials are on a movable carriage. Movable decimal markers are above all four rows of dials. The motor for the machine is under the mechanism and behind the carriage. The plug is on the right side.
A metal tag on the right of the machine reads: COXHEAD (/) MERCEDES. A metal tag next to the dials of the revolution counter reads: RALPH C. COXHEAD (/) MERCEDES-EUKLID (/) CALCULATING MACHINE (/)] NEW YORK CHICAGO. A mark scratched in the base at the front reads: Property [/] Univ. Mich. A mark at the left front of the machine, on the frame for the carriage, reads: 9[. . .].
Ralph C. Coxhead was the American agent for the Mercedes-Euklid in the 1920s. A Mercedes-Euklid model 12 with this capacity sold for $875.00 in 1928.
References:
E. Martin, The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen), trans. P. A. Kidwell and M. R. Williams, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, pp. 156–164.
J. H. McCarthy, The Business Machines and Equipment Digest, 1928, vol. 1, sec. 9, pp. 24–28.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of University of Michigan, School of Public Health
date made
1920s
ID Number
MA.324279
accession number
256654
catalog number
324279
Object Name
calculating machine
Physical Description
glass (overall material)
plastic (overall material)
metal (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 33 cm x 39 cm x 29.5 cm; 13 in x 15 11/32 in x 11 5/8 in
place made
Germany: Berlin, Berlin
place distributed
United States: Illinois, Chicago
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_690619