Rotary Measure, U.S. Patent Office Model
date: label: date made
content: 1876
label: date patented
content: 1876-09-12
name: label: patentee
content: Davis, Jr., Daniel
label: patentee
content: Wright, Edward
notes: label: Description
content: This small U.S. Patent Office model for a counter has the shape of an old-fashioned door key, with a dial protruding from the middle. A screw attached to a nozzle links to a shaft and rotates the dial. The edge of this dial is divided into 100 parts, which are labeled by 10s. A fixed pointer screwed to the middle of the dial indicates its reading. A second nozzle is tied to the object. The object illustrates the patent for “An Improvement in Rotary Devices” (#182,177) taken out by Daniel Davis Jr. and Edward Wright on September 12, 1876. There is no patent model tag.
label: Description
content: Daniel Davis Jr. (1844-1919) was the son of Massachusetts instrument maker Daniel Davis (1813-1887). The elder Davis retired from Boston to his home town of Princeton, Mass., in 1852 to farm. Some time after 1870, the younger Daniel Davis moved to Worcester, where he worked as a brass founder and took out a patent for water filters with one Benaiah Fitts.
label: Description
content: Edward Wright was born in New York around 1834. He patented an improvement in pickers for looms in September 1867. He received another patent for improvement in self-acting mules for spinning in February 1870. In September 1876 Wright and Davis received the U.S. patent for improvement in rotary measures for which this object is the model.. Both men were then living in Worcester.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Daniel Davis Jr. and Benaiah Fitts, "Improvement in Water-Filters," U.S. Patent 146442, January 13, 1874.
label: Description
content: Edward Wright, “Improvement in Pickers for Looms.” U.S. Patent 69880, 16 September 1867.
label: Description
content: Edward Wright, “Improvement in Self-Acting Mules for Spinning.” U.S. Patent 99511, 1 February 1870.
label: Description
content: Edward Wright and Daniel Davis Jr., “Improvement in Rotary Measures.” U.S. Patent 182177, 12 September 1879.
label: Description
content: U.S. Census, 1860, 1870, 1880.
label: Description
content: Web site of the Princeton, Mass., Historical Society, http://www.princetonmahistory.org/people-groups/residents/daniel-davis
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place patented
content: United States: Massachusetts, Worcester
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Counters
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.308942
label: catalog number
content: 308942
label: accession number
content: 89797
objectType: label: Object Name
content: counter, analog
label: Object Name
content: counter
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 cm x 9.4 cm x 5.4 cm; 13/32 in x 3 11/16 in x 2 1/8 in