Add-A-Count Scale
date: label: date made
content: 1950s
name: label: maker
content: Child Guidance Toys
notes: label: Description
content: During the 1950s, the number of children in the United States grew rapidly. Several manufacturers introduced toys intended to communicate elementary ideas. The Add-A-Count scale, made by Child Guidance Toys of New York City, well illustrates this trend. The red, white, and blue plastic toy is a balance with weights in the form of numbers. The weight of the weight is proportional to the size of the number. Hence a "3" on one arm will balance a "2" and a "1" on the other. There are two weights for each digit from 1 to 5 and one weight for each digit from 6 to 9, making a total of 14 weights. The weights and scale fit in a paper box, which has on it a drawing of a girl playing with the toy. In the 1960s, the toy was sold by instrument dealers like Edmund Scientific Company of Barrington, New Jersey. It sold for $1.00—by 1968 the price was $1.50.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Education
label: Subject
content: Toys
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Learning Arithmetic
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Arithmetic Teaching
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Uta C. Merzbach
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.0155.01
label: accession number
content: 1988.0155
label: catalog number
content: 1988.0155.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: toy
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (case material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8.8 cm x 21 cm x 17.7 cm; 3 7/16 in x 8 1/4 in x 6 15/16 in