Analog Computing Component - Potentiometer for the Mark I Fire Control Computer
date: label: date made
content: ca 1940
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: A potentiometer is a three-terminal resistor with a rotating (as in this instrument) or sliding contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. This example has a front bearing plate of gold-colored metal, and a back plate of fiber board. The drum in the center has thirty turns. A shaft protrudes from the front. On the back are three connections that are labeled in yellow “1”, “2”, and “3”. Two marks read: 618684.
label: Description
content: According to the accession file, this unit was designed by Hannibal Ford to meet the exacting electrical requirements of the fire control computer Mark I.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: A.B. Clymer, "The Mechanical Analog Computers of Hannibal Ford and William Newell," <I>Annals of the History of Computing</I>, 15, #2, 1993, 19-34.
label: Description
content: K.C. Epstein, <I>Analog Superpowers: How Twentieth Century Technology Theft Built the National Security State<I>, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2024.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Queens, Long Island City
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ford Instrument Company, Division of Sperry Rand Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.0751.03
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.03
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: fiber board (back plate material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8.5 cm x 9.4 cm x 8.2 cm; 3 11/32 in x 3 11/16 in x 3 7/32 in