Comptometer, Wooden Box Model
date: label: date made
content: 1886
name: label: maker
content: Felt, Dorr E.
notes: label: Description
content: By the 1880s, American business and government used reams of figures to track how they were doing. The Comptometer, invented in Chicago by Dorr E. Felt in the mid-1880s, was one of the first machines that sold successfully to help with this work. This key-driven machine is one of the first eight Felt built for customers. It has eight columns of metal keys with nine keys in each column. The keys are stamped with the digits from 1 to 9. The case is of cherry, with a metal plate at the front. Nine windows in this metal plate reveal digits on nine number wheels that indicate the total. A zeroing lever and knob are on the left side of the machine.
label: Description
content: This particular Comptometer was used for many years by Joseph S. McCoy, Actuary of the U.S. Treasury. Felt and his associates would greatly improve the machine, and sell it successfully throughout much of the world.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: U.S. Patent 366945, (Application July 6, 1887, granted July 19, 1887); U.S. Patent 371496 (application March, 1887, granted October 11, 1887).
label: Description
content: Accession Journal 1991.3107.06.
label: Description
content: J. A. V. Turck, <I>Origin of Modern Calculating Machines</I>, Chicago: Western Society of Engineers, 1921.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Adding Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dorr E. Felt
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.273035
label: catalog number
content: 273035
label: accession number
content: 54244
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cherry wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 cm x 19.6 cm x 37.7 cm; 5 29/32 in x 7 23/32 in x 14 27/32 in