TASCO Adder
date: label: date made
content: ca 1945
name: label: distributor
content: Tavella Sales Company
label: maker
content: Tavella Sales Company
notes: label: Description
content: This stylus-operated steel notched band adder has seven crook-shaped columns and one straight one, with eight notched bands below. Eight windows show results, and a narrow clearing lever is at the top. A steel plate slides over seven columns in the shape of inverted crooks, as well as an eighth straight column. These are used in subtraction. Instructions accompany the instrument. Compare to MA.313629.
label: Description
content: The TASCO pocket arithmometer closely resembles an adder sold by the Gray Arithmometer Company of Ithaca, New York, in the early 20th century and distributed by the Morse Chain Company of Ithaca in the 1920s. In 1929, the Morse Chain Company became part of Borg-Warner Corporation. Distribution of the adder soon shifted to the Tavella Sales Company of New York City.
label: Description
content: According to the donor "the little Tasco adder was given to me by Ruth's father, Jacob M. Frankel, who for some years was the manager of the extensive New York operation fothe Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropical Societies in New York City. He had always been interested in math, and was a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines. He probably purchased the little adder in the 1920s." It seems likely that the TASCO was later than the donor believed.
label: Description
content: References: P. Kidwell, “Adders Made and Used in the United States,” <I>Rittenhouse</I>, 8, (1994): pp. 78-96.
label: Description
content: Advertisements in <I>Popular Mechanics</I> 83 (March 1945), p. 178, (April 1945): 180, and (May, 1945), p. 178. <I>Popular Science</I> 152 (January 1948), p. 34.
label: Description
content: Utility Supply Company, <I>Office Supply Catalog</I> (Chicago, 1946), p. 285.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
label: place distributed
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Adder
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Daniel J. Boorstin
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0663.01
label: accession number
content: 1986.0663
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0663.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adder
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .5 cm x 7.7 cm x 13.8 cm; 3/16 in x 3 1/32 in x 5 7/16 in