TIM Calculating Machine
date: label: date made
content: ca 1909
name: label: maker
content: Ludwig Spitz & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: This manually operated, non-printing stepped drum calculating machine has a brass and steel mechanism, eight zinc alloy stepped drums, one of them cracked, and iron sides. The drums are only half-cylinders. On top of the drums is a metal plate painted black with slits for sliding levers used to set digits. The digits from 0 to 9 are marked along the edge of each slit. Six of the levers have steel bands next to them with the digits 0 to 9 stamped on them. These bands move so that the number set appears in a row of windows over the levers. The digit indicator is missing for the sixth and eighth windows.
label: Description
content: On the carriage are nine windows in the revolution counter and 16 to show the result. The crank at the right is broken and has no handle. Decimal markers include one flimsy painted metal piece for numbers entered, one for the revolution counter, and three for the result. The add & multiply / subtract & divide lever is on the left, but has broken off. The stepped drums are not covered on the underside.
label: Description
content: A mark below the entry levers reads: Rechenmaschinenfabrick LUDWIG SPITZ & Co., G.m.b.H., Berlin - Wien - New-York. A mark on the front of the machine reads: TIM. A mark at the left reads: PATENT (/) BREVET. A mark on the front edge of the carriage near the zeroing knobs reads: 828. A mark under the carriage reads: 01153. Another mark reads: Ludwig Spitz & Co. (/) TIM (/) TIME IS MONEY (/) TRADE MARK .
label: Description
content: This is a TIM machine removed from a wooden case and placed on an iron stand, but without the central plate and other features of later TIM machines. The TIM was introduced in 1907 and first sold in a cast-iron housing in 1909.
label: Description
content: The donor inherited this machine from his father.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Accession file 1994.0092.
label: Description
content: E. Martin, <I>The Calculating Machines (die Rechenmaschinen)</I>, trans. P. A. Kidwell and M. R. Williams, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, pp. 191–194.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Berlin, Berlin
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Calculating Machines
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Philip W. Steiner
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1994.0092.01
label: catalog number
content: 1994.0092.01
label: accession number
content: 1994.0092
label: maker number
content: 01516
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13.6 cm x 54.5 cm x 18 cm; 5 11/32 in x 21 15/32 in x 7 3/32 in