Automatic Arithmotor
date: label: date made
content: 1878
name: label: patentee
content: James, Reuben R.
label: maker
content: James, Reuben R.
notes: label: Description
content: This U.S. Patent Office model for an adding machine has eight counting wheels that rotate on a common crosswise shaft. Around the edge of each wheel, the digits from 0 to 9 are printed repeatedly. Attached to each cylinder is a toothed revolving disc. The machine has a wooden case with a tin cover over the wheels. On the cover, next to each wheel, is a slip of paper labeled with the numbers from 1 to 9. To enter a number, one places one's finger at the tooth next to the digit on the appropriate paper slip, and rotates forward. The sum appears in slots in the metal cover, near the top of the machine. Each wheel has four cams linked to a weighted pawl-lever, which is responsible for carrying.
label: Description
content: The inventor was Reuben [sic] R. James, an Indiana native born in August, 1826. According to Census records, he was a farmer (1850, 1860) and then the proprietor of a woolen mill (1870) in Rising Sun, Indiana. He took out this patent in 1878. James and fellow Rising Sun resident Mirabeau N. Lynn took out a patent for a grain meter in 1881.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: U.S. Patent 209690, November 5, 1878.
label: Description
content: U.S. Patent 238122, February 22, 1881.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Indiana, Rising Sun
label: place patented
content: United States: Indiana, Rising Sun
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Adding Machines
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.309321
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: catalog number
content: 309321
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cork (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21.5 cm x 20.2 cm x 20.2 cm; 8 15/32 in x 7 15/16 in x 7 15/16 in