Analog Computing Component - Motor Regulator
date: label: date made
content: ca 1932
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: According to the accession file, the Ford Instrument Company built this device “to control motor speed on a time line.” It reportedly was used on early Mark VIII range keepers, built for the U.S. Navy in the mid-twentieth century and widely used in World War II. The mechanism is largely of aluminum, with brass, iron, rubber and plastic parts. A mark on the bottom of the frame reads: 138894 5. A mark on the side of the frame reads: US5. Another mark on this side reads: 38894 2. A mark on a small piece in the shape of a regular hexagon reads: 124618-3. There is a decaying piece of tape on the side of the object. According to earlier cataloging, this once read: #47 Motor Regulator.
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: 1982.0751.24
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.24
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: aluminum, brass, iron (overall materials)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (wiring material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (label, top piece material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9.4 cm x 8.7 cm x 7.5 cm; 3 11/16 in x 3 7/16 in x 2 15/16 in