Adding Machine Model
date: label: date made
content: ca 1880
notes: label: Description
content: This model of a ten-key non-printing manually operated adding machine is an open wooden box that contains a metal mechanism driven by nine keys along the front. When a key is pushed down, it pushes a lever and ultimately turns gears. The object is a rough model, not a production machine. A loose piece may be part of the machine.
label: Description
content: This may be an incomplete model of the adding machine patented by David Marion Rush of Louisburg, Missouri. Rush applied for a patent July 25, 1883 and was granted it January 22, 1884. This model corresponds to the patent description of Rush’s machine as it was used to enter numbers. The mechanism for recording totals, as well as the upper cover of the instrument, is lacking.
label: Description
content: David Marion Rush was born in 1849 in Barren County, Kentucky, and moved with his family to Polk County, Missouri, in 1852. He studied in the public schools and then, for three years beginning in 1871, at a private school in Urbana, Missouri. After teaching from 1874 to 1884, he entered the patent rights business. He received two patents of his own, one for a washing machine and the other for an adding machine. From 1886 until at least 1889, he was county collector in Wright County, Missouri.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: David Rush. “Adding Machine,” U.S. Patent 292256, January 22, 1884.
label: Description
content: <I>History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, Pulaski, Phelps & Dent Counties, Missouri</I>, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1889. p. 965.
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: Adding Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of L. Leland Locke
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1983.3003.056
label: nonaccession number
content: 1983.3003
label: catalog number
content: 1983.3003.056
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16.5 cm x 27 cm x 20 cm; 6 1/2 in x 10 5/8 in x 7 7/8 in