Calcumeter
date: label: date made
content: 1901
name: label: maker
content: Morse, H. N.
notes: label: Description
content: This eight-wheeled stylus operated non-printing adding machine has wheels of brass and copper and a steel frame. Two metal supports on the back can be lowered so that the machine is at an angle rather than lying flat. The machine is marked on the front: THE CALCUMETER. It is marked on the right side: H.N.MORSE (/) TRENTON,N.J. It is marked on the left: 18143 (/) PAT’D DEC 17 ‘01. This is number 38 in the Felt & Tarrant collection.
label: Description
content: The Calcumeter was invented by James J. Walsh of Elizabeth, N.J. who applied for a patent January 16, 1901, and was granted it December 17, 1901 (U.S. Patent 689,225). Walsh went on to patent a resetting device for the machine on September 1, 1908 (U.S. Patent #897,688). This example of the machine does not have that mechanism. The instrument was first manufactured by Morse & Walsh Company in 1903 and 1904, but by 1906 was produced by Herbert North Morse of Trenton. Morse was a native of New Jersey who attended the South Jersey Institute in Bridgeton, N.J. and then spent a year at Harvard College. By 1916, he not only owned the Calcumeter adding machine business, but was assistant commissioner of education for the state of New Jersey.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.335352.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Harvard College Class of 1896, "Report V," June, 1916, Norwood, Massachusetts: Plimpton Press, p. 192.
label: Description
content: Bob Otnes, "Consider the Calcumeter. . ., ETCetera #8, Aug., 1989, pp. 6-7.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Jersey, Trenton
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Victor Comptometer Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.323622
label: accession number
content: 250163
label: catalog number
content: 323622
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 cm x 25 cm x 5.3 cm; 25/32 in x 9 27/32 in x 2 3/32 in