Strode Adding Machine for Accounting
date: label: date made
content: 1868
name: label: patentee
content: Strode, Thomas T.
label: maker
content: Strode, Thomas T.
notes: label: Description
content: The base of this U.S. Patent Office model for a circular stylus-operated adding machine is a wooden paddle. The outer edge of the paddle is divided clockwise into 100 parts, which are marked in ink. Five concentric metal discs are atop the paddle, each one slightly smaller than the one below. The discs are held together at the middle by a screw. The first disc above the paddle has 100 holes around the edge and rotates. The second disc is fixed, with the numbers from 1 to 97 marked in pen counterclockwise around the edge (a few higher digits are hidden). The third disc is toothed, and has the numbers from 1 to 100 around its edge, inside the teeth. The fourth disc covers the third one, with one notch that reveals a number on the toothed disc. The fourth disc also has 100 holes around its edge. Just inside these holes is the fifth, top disc. It also is divided into 100 parts around the edge. These are marked in pen from 1 to 50 going counterclockwise on the right side, and from 1 to 47 going clockwise around the left side (a few divisions are unmarked). The first disc is intended to represent sums of numbers up to 100 (cents), and to carry a term to advance the third disc, which represents hundreds (dollars). The smallest disc can be used as a guide in adding or subtracting hundreds.
label: Description
content: The machine is stamped on the front: T.T.STRODE. It has a tag nailed to the back that reads: T.T. Strode (/) Calculating Machine (/) Recd May 4 1867. Thomas T. Strode of Chester County in eastern Pennsylvania took out several patents in the second half of the nineteenth century for inventions ranging from a machine to boring holes in posts to a grain winnower and weigher to calendar-clocks. He apparently worked as a farmer and a merchant.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Thomas T. Strode, “Calculating and Registering-Machine,” U.S. Patent 74,170.
label: Description
content: U.S. Census records for 1850, 1860, and 1870.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Mortonville
label: place patented
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Mortonville
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Adding Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.252693
label: accession number
content: 49064
label: catalog number
content: 252693
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1.8 cm x 16.7 cm x 26 cm; 23/32 in x 6 9/16 in x 10 1/4 in