Webb Adder
date: label: date made
content: ca 1890
name: label: patentee
content: Webb, Charles H.
notes: label: Description
content: This two-wheeled steel stylus-operated non-printing adding machine has a large wheel with the numbers 00 to 99 stamped around the edge. A smaller wheel has numbers 0 to 49 stamped around its edge. A ring of holes is inside each set of numbers. A metal plate covers the outer edges of the two wheels, revealing sums in a small window between them. The numbers 0 to 99 also are stamped around the window for the larger wheel. Numbers are added by rotation of the wheels, up to sums of 4999. The carry mechanism is that patented by L. C. Smith. The frame is smooth around the edge, and patterned on the back. The stylus is missing and there are no maker’s marks.
label: Description
content: This instrument is from the collection of Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Lester C. Smith, “Adding-Machine,” U.S. Patent 414335, November 5, 1889.
label: Description
content: P. Kidwell, “The Webb Adder,” <I>Rittenhouse</I>, 1 (1986), pp. 12-18.
label: Description
content: E. Martin, <I>The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen)</I>, trans. P. A. Kidwell and M. R. Williams, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, p. 63.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
label: place patented
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Adding Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Victor Comptometer Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.323618
label: accession number
content: 250163
label: catalog number
content: 323618
objectType: label: Object Name
content: adding machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .5 cm x 16.1 cm x 11.1 cm; 3/16 in x 6 11/32 in x 4 3/8 in