The Calcumeter
date: label: date made
content: 1904
name: label: maker
content: Morse & Walsh Company
notes: label: Description
content: This five-wheeled stylus-operated adding machine has wheels of German silver (for ones and tens) and brass (for higher decimal places), with a blackened brass frame and sliding brass decimal marker. Each wheel has ten indentations. These are labeled in red on the wheel from 0 to 9. One of these ten digits is visible at any time. The digits from 1 to 9 are also stamped on the top of the frame around the opening for each wheel. Using the digits on the frame to indicate the placement of the stylus and rotating, the sum appears in the red digits on the wheels. No stylus survives. Apparently the machine doesn’t subtract. Small levers attached to the back of the machine can be adjusted to prop it up.
label: Description
content: The machine is marked on the front: THE CALCUMETER. It is marked on the back: 911 (/) PAT’D DEC.17’01. It is also marked there: D.Draper (/) April 2nd 1904. It is marked on the end: MORSE&WALSH CO. (/) TRENTON, N.J.
label: Description
content: The Calcumeter was invented by James J. Walsh of Elizabeth, N.J., who received a patent for it December 17, 1901 (U.S. Patent 689,225). The Calcumeter was first manufactured by Morse & Walsh Company in 1903 and 1904, but by 1906 was produced by Herbert North Morse of Trenton. Daniel Draper, who owned this machine, was a meteorologist in New York City.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.323622.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: P. A. Kidwell, “Scientists and Calculating Machines,” <I>Annals of the History of Computing</I>, 12 (1990): pp. 31-40.
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
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of John William Christopher Draper and James Christopher Draper
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.335352
label: accession number
content: 304826
label: catalog number
content: 335352
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: german silver (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1.8 cm x 16.3 cm x 5 cm; 23/32 in x 6 13/32 in x 1 31/32 in