Mendenhall's Practical Calculator
date: label: date made
content: 1867
name: label: patentee
content: Mendenhall, A.
label: maker
content: Mendenhall, A.
notes: label: Description
content: This patent model for an adder has a brass box with a rotating disc inset in the top. There are one hundred small holes around the rim of the disc. Outside the disc, on the top of the box, is a circular ring numbered from 01 to 99, with a gap at 00. Outside of this are three rings of holes, with one hundred holes in each ring. These holes are to be used to hold markers indicating digits carried when the disc makes full rotations. On the side of the box is a rotating multiplication table.
label: Description
content: A. Mendenhall, who patented this adder, was undoubtedly Amos Mendenhall, who was born in Ohio in 1828 and raised in east central Indiana. His father, Hiram Mendenhall (1801-1852) was a miller and farmer by trade and a Quaker and abolitionist in belief. In 1844, Hiram Mendenhall, as a representative of the Randolph County Anti-Slavery Society, presented a petition to presidential candidate Henry Clay, urging him to free his slaves. Clay refused and publicly rebuked Mendenhall. Hiram Mendenhall went on to pool his property with others to form the Unionport commune of the Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform. This effort soon collapsed and Hiram and Amos went to California to recoup the family fortunes in the gold fields. They failed to do this, and Hiram died of cholera on shipboard en route home. Amos, his mother, and his siblings continued to live in Unionport, where Amos farmed and tinkered. In the 1880 census, his occupation is given as “manufacture.”
label: Description
content: The “practical calculator” was Mendenhall's first patented invention. He took out patents for gold mining devices (#360713, granted April 5, 1887, and # 541912, granted June 11, 1895), a tricycle (#453151, granted May 26, 1891), and a bicycle (#740156, granted September 29, 1903).
label: Description
content: References: Patent #67,786, August 13, 1867 (Munn Co., attorneys); <I>Scientific American</I>, vol. 17, August 31, 1867, p. 141.
label: Description
content: U.S. Census records for 1860, 1880, 1900.
label: Description
content: Thomas D. Hamm, <I>God’s Government Begun: The Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform, 1842-1846</I>, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Indiana, Cerro Gordo
label: place patented
content: United States: Indiana, Cerro Gordo
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Adder
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.252691
label: accession number
content: 49064
label: catalog number
content: 252691
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adder
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5.4 cm x 13 cm x 13.8 cm; 2 1/8 in x 5 1/8 in x 5 7/16 in