Object Details
Description
This small notched band adder has six serrated metal strips arranged in columns that may be moved up and down with an aluminum stylus. The front is also aluminum, partly colored blue. The back is steel painted white, and the zeroing bar is brass. At the top front of the instrument, the six columns are used for addition and the openings are crook-shaped for carrying. As the bottom, the same strips are used for subtraction and the openings have an inverted crook for borrowing. The instrument is marked on the back: JAPAN. Compare Addiator Universal (1988.0807.04) and Addiator Arithma (1986.0543.01).
The adder ismarked at the top:Valiant. It ismarked at the bottom: PERSONAL (/) CALCULATOR. A mark on the back reads: JAPAN.
According to the donor, Kathleen Dolores Barberini used this particular Valiant Personal Calculator to maintain her household budget. Barberini believed that she used it in the 1950s. The Valiant personal calculator was advertised as selling for 99 cents in the Los Angeles Times in 1960.
Reference: Los Angeles Times, July 17, 1960, p. D4.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Kathleen A. Robertson
date made
ca 1960
ID Number
1992.0548.01
accession number
1992.0548
catalog number
1992.0548.01
Object Name
adder
Physical Description
brass (overall material)
aluminum (overall material)
steel (overall material)
Measurements
overall: .3 cm x 4.2 cm x 16.2 cm; 1/8 in x 1 21/32 in x 6 3/8 in
place made
Japan
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Adder
Science & Mathematics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_690275