Analog Computing Component, U.S. Navy Mark I Computer - Component Solver Cam
date: label: date made
content: ca 1940
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: This spur gear has a spiral groove cam action of 1 7/8 turns on one side. The cam groove is 1 cm. wide by .3 cm. deep. The center hole is 2.04 cm in diameter and there is a .47 cm. hole. The gear has a 10 inch pitch diameter, 24 diametrical pitch, 20 degree pressure angle, and 240 teeth. A tag on the object reads: 1. COMP. SOLVER (/) CAM. A mark reads: ITEM 1 – 240 (/) Teeth.
label: Description
content: Ford Instrument Company designed and produced gears like this one to be part of mechanisms that carried out calculations (analog computing devices). According to the accession file, this one was used in computing various mathematical functions of gun fire control data on the Computer Mark I, a machine built by Ford for the U.S. Navy.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: A.B. Clymer, "The Mechanical Analog Computers of Hannibal Ford and William Newell," <I>Annals of the History of Computing</I>, 15, #2, 1993, 19-34.
label: Description
content: Accession file.
label: Description
content: K.C. Epstein, <I>Analog Superpowers: How Twentieth Century Technology Theft Built the National Security State<I>, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2024.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Queens, Long Island City
title: label: Title
content: Analog Computing Component - U.S. Navy Mark I Computer Component Solver Cam
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ford Instrument Company, Division of Sperry Rand Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.0751.01
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.01
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 cm x 25.6 cm x 25.6 cm; 1 31/32 in x 10 3/32 in x 10 3/32 in