Baldwin Calculator
date: label: date made
content: 1902
name: label: maker
content: Baldwin, Frank S.
notes: label: Description
content: In 1875 Frank S. Baldwin of St. Louis patented a pinwheel calculating machine. He manufactured a few of these machines, but they did not sell well. Baldwin went on to take out a number of other patents. By 1901 he had moved to Newark, New Jersey, where he designed an improved pinwheel machine. He obtained a patent the following year. This is an early example of that machine.
label: Description
content: The lever-set, non-printing machine has eight rings at the front that rotate forward to release pins and enter numbers. A zeroing bar for the rings is at the front, and an operating crank to the right. The crank turns clockwise for addition and multiplication and counterclockwise for subtraction and division. Behind the rings is a movable carriage with a row of 16 result windows and, behind this, a second row of nine windows for the revolution register. Both these registers have zeroing cranks. Both also have a thin metal rod below them that moves to serve as a decimal marker.
label: Description
content: Pulling forward a lever on the left allows one to shift the carriage. A bell rings when the result changes sign (negative to positive or positive to negative). The entire machine sits in a wooden case with a missing lid.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.311954.
label: Description
content: A mark stamped on the front reads: No 50.
label: Description
content: The donor dated this machine to 1902.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Accession file.
label: Description
content: Frank S. Baldwin, “Calculating-Machine,” U.S. Patent 706375, August 5, 1902.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Jersey, Newark
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Calculating Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Monroe Calculating Machine Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.307384
label: catalog number
content: 307384
label: accession number
content: 67982
label: maker number
content: 50
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14.3 cm x 26.5 cm x 19.5 cm; 5 5/8 in x 10 7/16 in x 7 11/16 in