Analog Computing Component - Cam and Rack
date: label: date made
content: ca 1932 -1945
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: This aluminum piece includes a linear gear or rack and an indentation that serves as a cam. There also are five holes. A mark next to the rack reads: DRIFT (/) 8 IN. 55CAL. 260LB. H.C. PROJ. (/) 2600 F.W.I.V. 1/25 TWIST (/) O.P. 992 JULY 1943.
label: Description
content: Ford Instrument Company built devices like this one a part of mechanisms that carried out calculations (analog computing devices). According to the accession file, this component was used either in the Mark VIII Range Keeper or the Computer Mark 3.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: A.B. Clymer, "The Mechanical Analog Computers of Hannibal Ford and William Newell," <I>Annals of the History of Computing</I>, 15, #2, 1993, 19-34.
label: Description
content: Accession file.
label: Description
content: K.C. Epstein, <I>Analog Superpowers: How Twentieth Century Technology Theft Built the National Security State<I>, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2024.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Queens, Long Island City
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ford Instrument Company, Division of Sperry Rand Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.0751.15
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.15
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .2 cm x 13.3 cm x 9.3 cm; 3/32 in x 5 1/4 in x 3 21/32 in