Wooden Box Model Comptometer
date: label: date made
content: 1886
name: label: maker
content: Felt, Dorr E.
notes: label: Description
content: This key-driven non-printing adding machine has eight columns of metal keys, with nine keys in each column. It indicates totals with as many as nine digits. It is the sixth of eight production models made by American inventor and entrepreneur Dorr E. Felt of Chicago as he began his work with key-driven adding machines in 1886 and 1887.
label: Description
content: The keys in each column are stamped with the numbers from 1 to 9, with the digits colored black. The key stems pass through the key tops and there is a spring around each key stem. The stems become progressively longer as the digits get larger. No complementary digits are indicated, and the key tops are flat and entirely of metal. The case is of cherry, with a metal plate at the front. Nine windows in this metal plate reveal digits on nine number wheels that indicate the total. A zeroing lever and knob are on the right side of the machine. The base is covered with green felt. Metal and paper tags are stored with object.
label: Description
content: The machine is marked on a metal tag screwed to the top in back of the keyboard: D.E.FELT MFR (/) PAT’S PENDING. A metal tag stored with the machine reads: 2. There is no serial number
label: Description
content: According to the accession journal of Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company, received from the successor firm of Victor Comptometer Corporation, this was the sixth of the first eight marketable Comptometers built by Felt with the help of R. F. Foster in the fall of 1886. It was secured by Felt & Tarrant from Mr. Foster in 1938.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Felt & Tarrant, Accession Journal 1991.3107.06.
label: Description
content: J. A. V. Turck, <I>Origin of Modern Calculating Machines</I>, Chicago: Western Society of Engineers, 1921.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Adding Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Victor Comptometer Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.323649
label: catalog number
content: 323649
label: accession number
content: 250163
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cloth (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cherry wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12.9 cm x 19.2 cm x 36 cm; 5 3/32 in x 7 9/16 in x 14 3/16 in