Analog Computing Component - Cam Gear Computing Unit
date: label: date made
content: ca 1915-1955
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: This mechanism has an open aluminum frame with two mounted counters in front of it, each linked to a black dial. Both dials are divided around the rim into 100 equal parts with even divisions numbered. Rotating the right dial ten advances the right counter one. Rotating a shaft at the center back of the frame rotates both the gears inside the frame and the dials – the left one at a much slower rate. Both dials have a mark – seemingly a zero point – that reads: Y.
label: Description
content: A mark on each counter reads: PRODUCTIMETER (/) DURANT MFG. CO. (/) MILWAUKEE, WIS. A plasticized tag attached to the top of the frame reads: #76 CAM Gear (/) COMPUTING UNIT. According to the accession file, this was an experimental device developed by Ford.
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: Accession file.
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: 1982.0751.34
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.34
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 26.8 cm x 25.5 cm x 26.4 cm; 10 9/16 in x 10 1/32 in x 10 13/32 in