Monroe Model IQ-213 Calculating Machine
date: label: date made
content: 1963
name: label: maker
content: Litton Industries
notes: label: Description
content: Authors in the 19th century marveled that machines could carry out arithmetic operations, which had often been associated purely with human intelligence. In the mid-20th century the Monroe Calculating Machine Company, a division of Litton Industries, introduced an electrically operated calculating machine that could store numbers entered to be used in several mathematical operations. They hailed this memory feature of calculating machines as an extension of artificial intelligence, naming the machine the “IQ-213.”
label: Description
content: The full-keyboard, non-printing and electrically operated modified stepped drum calculating machine has a dark gray metal frame with a light gray metal carriage and keyboard. The keys are plastic. The ten columns of color-coded digit keys have nine keys in each column. Ten numeral dials on the keyboard display the amount entered in the memory. The machine has some 18 function keys.
label: Description
content: The movable metal carriage has a row of nine plastic tab stops above three rows of dials. The top row of dials is divided into two sections, with ten dials on the left and 11 to the right. The left dials are revolution register dials that show multipliers in black or quotients in red. These do not have a carry. The right dials also register the multiplier in multiplication and the quotient in division and have a carry.
label: Description
content: Above the black right dials is a row of eight red and one yellow plastic buttons. The red buttons are tab stops for the carriage, the yellow button releases the red ones. The second row contains 21 dials (for the results of addition, subtraction, and multiplication), and the third row has ten dials (for the multiplier). A cord that plugs into the back and a light tan plastic cover are present.
label: Description
content: The machine is marked in raised letters on the front and back: MONROE; IQ-213 (/) THE CALCULATOR WITH A MEMORY. It is marked on both sides: MONROmatic. A tag attached to the bottom of the case reads: MODEL IQ - 213 (/) SERIAL B852353. The cord and plastic cover are marked: MONROE li.
label: Description
content: For related documentation, see pamphlet 1988.0663.02, which is copyrighted 1963. Monroe filed for a trademark for the phrase “IQ-213” in 1962, and obtained the registration in 1963.
label: Description
content: This machine was purchased by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, from Litton Business Systems for $1,085.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Accession file.
label: Description
content: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Registration Number 754123, August 6, 1963.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Calculating Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transfer from National Aeronautics and Space Administration
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0663.01
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0663.01
label: maker number
content: B852353
label: accession number
content: 1988.0663
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 22.5 cm x 45.8 cm x 41 cm; 8 27/32 in x 18 1/32 in x 16 5/32 in