Beach Calculating Machine
date: label: date made
content: ca 1910
name: label: maker
content: Beach-Kauffman Manufacturing Company
notes: label: Description
content: This small black machine sits on an iron base with four short legs. Seven toothed semicircular discs, mounted on a single shaft, are used to enter numbers. Between the toothed discs are full discs with the digits from 0 to 9 marked around the edge of each disc 3 times. The face of the machine is a steeply sloped curve with a rounded top. The toothed discs protrude from slots in the face, and one digit on each disc is visible through a window. The handle is on the right side. Several parts of the machine are missing.
label: Description
content: The machine is marked on the front: THE (/) BEACH (/) CALCULATING (/) MACHINE. It is stamped on the bottom: 2151. A mark scratched on the bottom reads: Geo. J.
label: Description
content: The Beach calculating machine was manufactured, at least initially, by the Book-Keeper Publishing Company of Detroit, Michigan. The firm had previously manufactured a two-wheeled stylus-operated adding machine on the design of Lester C. Smith (a modification of the Webb adder), but discontinued this product after a patent dispute.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Seal et al v. Bookkeeper Pub. Co., May 3, 1904, Case No. 1258, "Circuit Court of Appeals Reports", 64, Rochester: Lawyers’ Cooperative Publishing, 1905, pp. 651-657.
label: Description
content: Elmer Henry Beach, <I>Tools of Business, an Encyclopedia of Office Equipment and Labor Saving Devices</I>, Detroit: Book-Keeper Publishing Co., Ltd., 1905, pp. 10-11.
label: Description
content: The Thomas’ <I>Register</I> for 1907-1908 through 1912 list under Machinery - Adding, Calculating, etc. the Beach-Kauffman Mfg. Co. of Detroit, Michigan as the manufacturer of an adding machine.
label: Description
content: Advertisement in <I>Business, a Magazine for Office Store and Factory</I>, vol 19 #1, (August 1906), p. 4, 63. The magazine was edited by Elmer Henry Beach. The advertisement indicates that the Beach-Kauffman Manufacturing Company was selling the machine.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Michigan, Detroit
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 L. Leland Locke
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.311945
label: accession number
content: 155183
label: maker number
content: 2151
label: catalog number
content: 311945
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19 cm x 20.5 cm x 18 cm; 7 15/32 in x 8 1/16 in x 7 3/32 in