Barbour Calculating Machine
date: label: date made
content: 1875
name: label: patentee
content: Barbour, Edmund D.
label: maker
content: Barbour, Edmund D.
notes: label: Description
content: This small brass U.S. Patent Office model of a calculating machine is a modification of Edmund D. Barbour’s two earlier machines. It has a rectangular base on which is mounted crosswise a rotating cylinder. The cylinder has nine crosswise grooves that fill somewhat less than a quarter of the surface. Metal bands separate the grooves into columns, and each column has a set of nine sliding markers that fit in the grooves. Sliding these markers sets a number. There also is an array of pins around the cylinder, which is used in carrying. There are gears on both sides of the cylinder.
label: Description
content: The registering mechanism has an open frame that holds three rods. One rod holds four type wheels, and the other two rods hold four gears each. Each type wheel has the numbers from 0 to 9.
label: Description
content: The machine has no maker’s marks.
label: Description
content: Compare 309172, 309173, and 318168.
label: Description
content: The Edmund D. Barbour who took out this patent was probably Edmund Dana Barbour (1841–1925), a Boston native. He reportedly gained a fortune in the China trade, returning to Boston in 1871. Barbour took out two other patents for calculating machines; invested successfully in the Bell Telephone Company; carried out extensive genealogical research; and left most of his fortune in bequests to Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Radcliffe College. The model apparently did not lead to a successful product.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: U.S. Patent 168080, September 28, 1875.
label: Description
content: J. A. V. Turck, <I>Origin of Modern Calculating Machines</I>, Chicago: Western Society of Engineers, 1921, pp. 180–187.
label: Description
content: “Sharon’s Rich Men,” <I>Boston Daily Globe</I>, February 20, 1888, p. 6.
label: Description
content: “Fund for Three Local Colleges: Edmund D Barbour’s Will Gives Each $20,000 a Year,” <I>Boston Daily Globe</I>, March 13, 1925.
label: Description
content: Kwang-Ching Liu, <I>Anglo-American Steamship Rivalry in China</I>, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962, esp. pp. 92–98, 128.
label: Description
content: J. Gardner Bartlett, “Edmund Dana Barbour,” <I>The New England Historical and Genealogical Register </I>, vol. 79, October, 1925, pp. 339–344. This obituary does not mention any inventive activity of Barbour.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
label: place patented
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Calculating 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: MA.318168
label: accession number
content: 155183
label: catalog number
content: 318168
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5.5 cm x 19 cm x 12.2 cm; 2 5/32 in x 7 15/32 in x 4 13/16 in