Monroe Calculating Machine (Model K-16?)
date: label: date made
content: 1940s
name: label: maker
content: Monroe Calculating Machine Company
notes: label: Description
content: This full-keyboard manually operated, non-printing, modified stepped drum calculating machine has a crinkled metal exterior with rounded corners, painted light green. The green paint has worn away in some places to reveal black paint beneath. The steel plate underneath the keys is dark green.
label: Description
content: The machine has eight columns of black and white plastic digit keys. Rods between the columns of keys that serve as decimal markers. They are painted white on one side and the same green as the plate under the keyboard on the other. Pushing a red key at the bottom of each column zeros that column of keys. The key stems are of uniform length. A metal lever is to the right of the keyboard and a metal knob to the left. Rotating a crank on the right side clockwise adds numbers entered, moving it counterclockwise subtracts.
label: Description
content: The carriage behind the keyboard has a row of 16 numeral dials for recording results. Eight numeral dials in a row behind these serve as a revolution register. Two thin metal rods between the windows carry decimal markers. The crank for shifting the carriage is at the front of the machine. A knob for lifting the carriage is to the right of the result register, and a crank for zeroing dials is on the right side of the carriage. The machine has four rubber feet. To the left of the keyboard is a metal knob with an arrow on it. This knob is painted green.
label: Description
content: A mark on the front and back sides reads, in cursive writing, Monroe. The mechanism of the machine, inside the carriage on the right, has the serial number: K66367
label: Description
content: Compare MA.334711, MA.307386, 1983.0831.01, and 1982.0682.05.
label: Description
content: The date of this machine is a mystery. The model resembles the K-16 described in McCarthy’s 1924 <I>American Digest of Business Machines</I>. The serial number is one the NOMDA blue book would associate with 1926. However, the Monroe logo is of a form introduced in 1940, and the light green color is quite unlike other Monroe machines of the 1920s.
label: Description
content: The machine was given to the Smithsonian by David G. Owen, a statistician in the Research Division of the Miami Heart Institute.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: National Office Machine Dealer’s Association, <I>Blue Book</I>, May 1975, as compiled by Office Machine Americana, January, 2002.
label: Description
content: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Registration #522928, Serial #71117235.
label: Description
content: Accession file.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Jersey, Orange
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Calculating Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of David G. Owen
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.334711
label: catalog number
content: 334711
label: maker number
content: A66367
label: accession number
content: 311324
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19.6 cm x 44.5 cm x 39 cm; 7 23/32 in x 17 17/32 in x 15 11/32 in