Pascal Adding Machine Section (Replica)
date: label: date made
content: 1964
name: label: maker
content: Search Corporation
notes: label: Description
content: As a youth, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was asked to assist his father in calculations relating to tax returns. Pascal, a future mathematician and natural philosopher, decided that addition and subtraction could be done more easily by machine. The French teenager invented one of the first mechanical adding machines. This is a replica of two counting units in a Pascal adding machine.
label: Description
content: The model has a brass mechanism, paper number labels, and a transparent plastic case. It shows the two highest counting units of a Pascal adding machine. Two wheels at the front are for entering digits. They both link to horizontal cog wheels with pins protruding from them. These wheels, in turn, are linked to vertical cog wheels that drive the result drums at the back. The vertical wheels are also linked so that as the wheel on the right advances, a weight linked to the other wheel rises. Once the right wheel has been turned a full circle (entering 10), the weight falls and advances the left wheel by one unit, carrying a digit. Nines complements are marked around the result dials for use in subtraction.
label: Description
content: Pascal and his associates made about fifty adding machines in the course of his life, but they never became a practical product. This replica was made for the Smithsonian in 1964.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Michael R. Williams, <I>A History of Computing Technology</I>, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1985.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Florida, Tallahassee
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Adding Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.323882
label: accession number
content: 254097
label: catalog number
content: 323882
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine cross section
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10.2 cm x 14 cm x 14 cm; 4 1/32 in x 5 1/2 in x 5 1/2 in