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Model Relating to Powers Tabulating Equipment

American History Museum

James Powers's Model for an Improvement in Tabulating Machines
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  • James Powers's Model for an Improvement in Tabulating Machines
  • James Powers's Model for an Improvement in Tabulating Machines
  • James Powers's Model for an Improvement in Tabulating Machines
  • James Powers's Model for an Improvement in Tabulating Machines

    Object Details

    maker

    James Powers

    Description

    The wooden base of this model holds a metal container with a paper punch card that fits in it. A metal piece swings from a crosspiece above the card. The base also holds supports for another metal crosspiece. Three metal pieces rotate with this crosspiece. The base also holds two larger, facing metal rectangles. One rectangle has a plastic piece screwed to the top.
    A mark on the right side of the punch card reads: POWERS ACCOUNTING MACHINE COMPANY (/) ACCOUNTS PAYABLE. A mark on the left side of the punch card reads: P1384. The punched holes are round.
    A piece of paper pasted to the top of the base reads: This model represents my new (/) invention of a tabulator in connec- (/) tion with perforated cards, elimina- (/) ting a pin box of 540 pins and sub- (/) stitution forty-five levers instead. (/) Also eliminating connection box, with (/) both of these improvements the speed (/) will be doubled and such machine will (/) be small in size, cheaper to build, (/) more flexible and easier to manipulate. (/) August 19, 1924 (/) James Powers. Also signing the document were Fred J. Dole, Charles E. Whiteman and Achilles Rovegno, all of whom had associations with Francis H. Richards of New York, Powers’s patent attorney.
    No patent corresponding to this invention has been found.

    Location

    Currently not on view

    Credit Line

    Gift of Thor Dockweiler

    date made

    1924

    ID Number

    1991.0871.03

    accession number

    1991.0871

    catalog number

    1991.0871.03

    Object Name

    tabulating equipment model

    Physical Description

    paper (overall material)
    wood (overall material)
    metal (overall material)

    Measurements

    overall: 13 cm x 22.9 cm x 21.6 cm; 5 1/8 in x 9 1/32 in x 8 1/2 in

    place made

    United States: New York, New York City

    See more items in

    Medicine and Science: Mathematics
    Computers & Business Machines
    Tabulating Equipment

    Data Source

    National Museum of American History

    web subject

    Mathematics

    Metadata Usage

    CC0

    Link to Original Record

    https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a7-6ec1-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

    Record ID

    nmah_904251

    Discover More

    A black, metal card punch. Its base is triangular and holds a cream colored plate marked like the cards it punches

    The Bureau of the Census to Remington Rand

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