Grant Grasshopper Calculating Machine
date: label: date made
content: 1896
name: label: maker
content: Grant Calculating Machine Company
notes: label: Description
content: This commercially sold example of George B. Grant’s grasshopper calculating machine at one time belonged to tabulating machine inventor Herman Hollerith Jr. of Washington, D.C.
label: Description
content: The lever-set manually operated non-printing connection pawl machine has an open iron frame painted black, with steel and brass parts and paper labels. Five pins at the front of the machine slide horizontally to set numbers. Next to each pin is a thin strip of paper with the digits from 0 to 9 printed on it, the digits increasing toward the back of the machine. Each strip also has complementary digits in smaller type, for use in subtraction and division. Moving a pin back drives back a toothed rack.
label: Description
content: Behind the racks is a movable carriage that slides to six different positions and has 11 gears on it. A paper strip with digits on it is next to each gear. Turning a crank at the front right of the machine moves the racks back to engage the gears, turning each one of them in proportion to the number set. When the adding frame reaches the end of its backward movement, a cam set on the crank shaft at the front raises all the register gears a little so that the gears are disengaged from the racks and not moved in the return motion.
label: Description
content: One tooth on each gear extends so that when the gear has made a complete rotation, it engages one of the carry teeth arranged on a spiral shaft above the carriage. As the adding racks return to position, the shaft revolves and the carry tooth pushes the next gear up by one, resulting in a carry. Releasing the carriage and turning it one revolution zeros the result shaft.
label: Description
content: A paper tag to the right of the pins reads: GRANT CALCULATING MACHINE COMPANY [/] BOSTON, PHILADELPHIA, CLEVELAND. Two windows at the front of the machine read: C B.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.310647 and MA.335633 (MA.310647 has a metal plate at the back not found on MA.335633).
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: “Grant’s Calculating Machine,” <I>The Manufacturer and Builder</I>, vol. 26 #9 (September 1894): pp. 195–96.
label: Description
content: G. B. Grant, "The Calculating Machine," <I>Machinery</I>, 2 #2, October, 1895, pp. 50–51.
label: Description
content: G. B. Grant, "Calculating-Machine," U.S. Patent 605,288, June 7, 1898.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Boston
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 the Estate of Herman Hollerith, Jr.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335633
label: catalog number
content: 335633
label: accession number
content: 1977.0114
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
label: Other Terms
content: calculating machine; Connection Pawl, Lever-Set
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21.3 cm x 29 cm x 30 cm; 8 3/8 in x 11 13/32 in x 11 13/16 in