Object Details
maker
Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company
Description
This key-driven non-printing adding machine has a wooden case and eight columns of color-coded plastic keys. The keys are black and white, with complementary digits indicated in red. It is a relatively late example of a Comptometer with a wooden, rather than a metal, case.
There is a spring around each key stem, and the stems become progressively longer as the digits are larger. Eight subtraction levers are in front of the keys. Eight decimal markers are attached to a metal plate, painted black, which is in front of these. A row of nine windows in the plate reveals the number wheels. Hence the machine can have eight-digit numbers entered and compute nine-digit totals. The zeroing mechanism is a knob and lever on the right side.
The serial number, stamped on the front of the machine under the decimal markers, is 5765. A metal tag attached to the back of the machine is marked: TRADE COMPTOMETER MARK (/) PAT’D (/) JUL.19.87 JUN. 11. 89. (/) OCT.11.87 NOV.25.90 (/) JAN.8.89 DEC.15.91. (/) SEP.22.96 (/) Felt & Tarrant Mfg. Co. (/) CHICAGO.
Compare to MA.323650.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1906
ID Number
1987.0107.04
catalog number
1987.0107.04
maker number
5765
accession number
1987.0107
Object Name
adding machine
Physical Description
plastic (overall material)
wood (overall material)
metal (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 13.4 cm x 20.4 cm x 36.3 cm; 5 9/32 in x 8 1/32 in x 14 9/32 in
place made
United States: Illinois, Chicago
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Adding Machines
Science & Mathematics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_690487