Analog Computing Component - Cams and Gears in Display Case
date: label: date made
content: ca 1920-1955
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: The New York-born engineer Hannibal C. Ford (1877-1955) began his career with the South Premier Typewriting Company and then, from 1909 until 1914, worked with Elmer Sperry and the Sperry Gyroscope Company. He left to form his own company, specializing in analog fire control instruments manufactured for the U.S. Navy. This large wooden, glass-covered case displays cams, gears, and other components manufactured by the Ford Instrument Company. The materials came to the Smithsonian in 1966. Related objects form the rest of accession 1982.0751.27.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: A.B. Clymer, "The Mechanical Analog Computers of Hannibal Ford and William Newell," Annals of the History of Computing, 15, #2, 1993, 19-34.
label: Description
content: Wright, C. C. and J.L. Latimer, “Questions on the Effectiveness of U.S. Navy Battleship Gunnery: Notes on the Origins of U.S. Navy Gun Fire Control System Range Keepers,” Warship International, 41 #1, 2004, 55-78.
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: 1982.0751.27
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.27
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (frame material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (components, nails material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (front material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 75 cm x 127.3 cm x 9 cm; 29 17/32 in x 50 1/8 in x 3 17/32 in