Analog Computing Component - Bevel Gear Differential
date: label: date made
content: ca 1920-1955
name: label: maker
content: Ford Instrument Company
notes: label: Description
content: Ford Instrument Company built this device for addition and subtraction functions on the company’s range keepers and computers. A steel shaft carries one separate gear and two gears that each attach to a smaller gear on the same shaft. These smaller gears face one another and are linked by two other gears of the same size that move perpendicularly. A mark around the containers for the ball bearings associated with the last two gears reads: MADE IN U.S.A. (/) FAFNIA F3. A mark on the cube at the center of the four smaller gears reads: MOD 43 & 7 (/) 508 1 & 2 (/) 64 & 65 (/) PF. The back of this cube is marked: 21 (/) D37.
label: Description
content: The gear at one end that is joined to a smaller gear is marked: 12238355. The gear in the center is marked: 122383 80. The separate gear at the other end of the shaft is marked: 122373 40. A red tag attached to the shaft reads: #50 (/) ¼” BEVEL (/) GEAR DIFF.
label: Description
content: References:
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
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: 1982.0751.25
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0751.25
label: accession number
content: 1982.0751
objectType: label: Object Name
content: analog computing component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (shaft material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (tag material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13.5 cm x 7.5 cm x 7.5 cm; 5 5/16 in x 2 15/16 in x 2 15/16 in