Baldwin Arithmometer
date: label: date made
content: 1874
name: label: patentee
content: Baldwin, Frank S.
label: maker
content: Baldwin, Frank S.
notes: label: Description
content: This is the United States Patent Office model for a machine for adding a column of digits patented by Frank S. Baldwin, who is listed on the patent as a resident of Philadelphia. It is the second of several patents Baldwin filed relating to adding and calculating machines.
label: Description
content: The machine's back is roughly a half-disc, with the digits from 0 to 9 engraved across the top. A steel arrow rotates to point to any one of these digits. Rotating a brass knob returns the arrow to place. The knob is linked by gears to a small movable carriage at the base of the device. Returning the knob to its original position rotates two small register wheels. One of the wheels records the sum of the number entered and the number already set in the wheels. The other records the complement of this number. There are four sets of register wheels, linked to one another so that the machine carries, hence the machine may add numbers up to 9999.
label: Description
content: A committee of J. W Nystrom, John Groesbeck, and Pliney E. Chase commented favorably on this machine before the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. It received the Scott Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1874, and was produced in small numbers.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: U.S. Patent 153,522, July 28, 1874.
label: Description
content: Thomas A. Russo Sr., and Conrad Schure, “The Calculating Engines of Frank S. Baldwin,” <I>Rittenhouse</I>, 11 #3 (May 1997), pp. 93-96.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
label: place patented
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Adding Machines
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content: Calculating Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.308935
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: catalog number
content: 308935
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 cm x 13 cm x 11.3 cm; 25/32 in x 5 1/8 in x 4 7/16 in