Analog Computing Component - Groove Cam and Gear
date: label: date made
content: ca 1940
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: In the analog computing devices built by Ford Instrument Company, two-dimensional cams like this one were used to generate functions of one variable. The input is represented by the angle of rotation of the cam, as controlled by the motion of the toothed edge. The output is the motion of a follower along the working surface of the cam. In this particular cam, the working surface is the groove and a pin that rides in the groove serves as the follower. The cam can be rotated through over a full circle, extending the range of the input function.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: On cams, see Audio Products, Inc., “<I>Basic Mechanisms in Fire Control Computers: Shafts, Gears, . . </I>., 1953. This is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG0G95SpdBE.
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: 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: 1982.0751.19
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.19
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: .4 cm x 18.7 cm x 18.7 cm; 5/32 in x 7 3/8 in x 7 3/8 in