Briggs' Quick and Sure Reckoner
date: label: date made
content: 1879
name: label: patentee
content: Briggs, William M.
label: maker
content: Briggs, William M.
notes: label: Description
content: This U.S. Patent Office model for an adder has a square wooden frame. On top is a piece of paper printed with the numbers from 1 to 100 and a rotating tin disc. The disc has 100 holes in it and is covered with another piece of paper, with the digits from 1 to 100 printed around the edge. Atop this disc is a second, smaller wooden disc with ten serrations around the edge. There also is a fixed metal arm which reaches over the 100 disc on the outside paper. This arm advances the smaller disc at every rotation of the larger disc.
label: Description
content: Census records suggest that the inventor of this device was born in Connecticut or Massachusetts in about 1813. The 1840 U.S. Census indicates that there was a William M. Briggs, 20 to 30 years old, living with a woman of about the same age and two children in Stoughton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. No record for William Briggs was found in the 1850 census for Massachusetts. The 1860 Census returns list a William Briggs, 47 years old and a farmer, living with Elizabeth, 32 years old, and children Emma (10), Frank (5), and George (2). This William Briggs was supposedly born in Massachusetts. The family lived in Sharon, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, a town very close to Stoughton, Massachusetts. In the 1870 Census for Stoughton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, there was a William M. Briggs, miller, 57 years old, born in Connecticut. He reportedly lived with Elizabeth (age 43) and a five-year old boy.
label: Description
content: References: U.S. Patent 222,126, December 2, 1879.
label: Description
content: P. Kidwell, “Adders Made and Used in the United States,” <I>Rittenhouse</I>, 1994, 8:78-96.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Stoughton
label: place patented
content: United States: Massachusetts, Stoughton
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Adder
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of L. Leland Locke
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.311959
label: accession number
content: 155183
label: catalog number
content: 311959
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adder with carry
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2.2 cm x 15 cm x 15.4 cm; 7/8 in x 5 29/32 in x 6 1/16 in