Analog Computing Component - Integrator
date: label: date made
content: ca 1920-1940
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: Instruments for finding the area under curved lines date from the nineteenth century. This twentieth century example is based on a mechanism invented by British engineer James Thomson and used by his bother William (later Lord Kelvin) in constructing the first harmonic analyzer in 1876. The object shows modifications and refinements made by the American inventor Hannibal Ford. It has two stacked balls, held between a steel disk and relatively long aluminum cylinder. The carrier for the cylinder is linked to two metal springs.
label: Description
content: From about 1915 into the 1940s, Ford's integrators were used by the U. S. Navy in devices for aiming guns on ships. This Ford integrator is a relatively early one, for use in range keepers and computers.
label: Description
content: Objects 1982.0751.35, 1982.0751.36, and 1982.0751.37 are stored together in a wooden box lined with fabric that has a black handle. A tag on it reads: #78 Integrators 78a, 78b, 78c. The handle has two paper labels attached to it with string. One reads: Grand Central Terminal (/) Red Cap Service (/) Serial Number 35773 Red Cap Number 137. The other reads: No. 83583 Q.
label: Description
content: The accession file indicates that this integrator is earlier than object 1982.0751.06
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
label: See more items in
content: Mechanical Integrators and Analyzers
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: 1982.0751.37
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.37
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood, fabric, metal (case material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 cm x 23.5 cm x 17.5 cm; 3 5/32 in x 9 1/4 in x 6 7/8 in