Integraph Unit of Vannevar Bush
date: label: date made
content: ca 1925
name: label: maker
content: Bush, Vannevar
notes: label: Description
content: This is the integraph-unit used by Vannevar Bush and his colleagues at MIT before they constructed the first differential analyzer. It consists of a Thomson watthour meter (in a box) with a geat train on under the box that has a crank at the rear. A nameplate on the meter reads: Thomson watthour meter / direct current / 3 wire / No 5813227 Type 06 / Amp 10 Volts 231-240 / m27778 General Electric Co. U.S.A.
label: Description
content: The object was donated to the museum with a large collection of electrical apparatus, much of it in the Electricity collections.
label: Description
content: This instrument is a small part of a device that calculated the integral of the product of two functions. It was variously described as a product integraph and a continuous integraph. Illustrations of the system appear in the 1927 paper cited.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: V. Bush, F.D. Gage, and H.R. Stewart, "A Continuous Integraph," <I>Journal of the Franklin Institute</I>, vol. 203 #1, 1927, pp. 63-84.
label: Description
content: S. Puchta, "On the Role of Mathematics and Mathematical Knowledge in the Invention of Vannevar Bush's Early Analog Computers," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 1996, vol. 18 # 4, pp. 49-59.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Mechanical Integrators and Analyzers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.322186
label: catalog number
content: 322186
label: accession number
content: 244197
objectType: label: Object Name
content: integraph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 63.5 cm x 28 cm x 37 cm; 25 in x 11 1/32 in x 14 9/16 in
label: Measurements
content: box: 12 1/2 in x 7 in x 7 in; 31.75 cm x 17.78 cm x 17.78 cm