Analog Computing Component - Component Solver Cam for the Mark I Fire Control Computer
date: label: date made
content: ca 1940
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: This is a spur gear has spiral cam action, of 3 3/4 turns, on one side. The cam groove is .75 cm. wide and .35 cm. deep. The center hole is 2.2 cm. in diameter, with a .7 cm. hole at 10.8 cm. radius. The opposite side of the gear has three 10-32 tapped holes spaced 115 degrees, 118 degrees, and 127 degrees apart. The gear has a 10” pitch diameter. With this is a heart shaped cam .15 cm. thick. Wire with green residue is twisted through a hole on the edge. A mark stamped into one side reads: 1707862. Another mark in marker reads: ITEM - 2 – 240 Teeth.
label: Description
content: Ford Instrument Company designed and produced gears like this one to be part of mechanisms that carried out calculations (analog computing devices). According to the accession file, this one was used in computing various mathematical functions of gun fire control data.
label: Description
content: Reference:
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: 1982.0751.02
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.02
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: .8 cm x 5.6 cm x 5.6 cm; 5/16 in x 2 7/32 in x 2 7/32 in