Analog Computing Component - Barrel Gear
date: label: date made
content: 1940s
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: This aluminum ballistic barrel cam is almost round on the bottom and more pointed on the top – though still with curved sides. It was made by Ford Instrument Company for the Computer Mark I, an analog device it built for the U.S. Navy. A mark on the more pointed end reads: u(V4)j (/) O.P. 1184 (/) 5”54CAL. 2550 F.S.I.V. Also on this surface is the mark: 596175. The center bearing hole is 1.8 cm. wide at each end. Each end also has three equally spaced shallow holes around the bearing hole. The small end also has a larger shallow hole with another small hole coming into this one from the cam side. A plastic tag stored with the object reads: 71 BALLISTIC (/) BARREL CAM.
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: 1982.0751.32
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.32
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (tag material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5.7 cm x 6.7 cm x 6.4 cm; 2 1/4 in x 2 5/8 in x 2 17/32 in