Accession No
4404
Brief Description
Pascal-type calculator, by Lightning Adding Machine Sales Company, U.S.A., mid-20th Century
Origin
U.S.A.; California; Los Angeles
Maker
Lightning Adding Machine Sales Company
Class
calculating
Earliest Date
1925
Latest Date
1970
Inscription Date
Material
metal (steel); plastic (bakelite)
Dimensions
length 360mm; breadth 110mm; height 44mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased from Tesseract.
Inscription
‘MFGD. BY
Lightning
ADDING
MACHINE
SALES CO.
LOS ANGELES 7
CALIF. U.S.A.’ (front)
Description Notes
American Pascal-type calculator made of steel and bakelite. Body painted grey with yellow and white lettering. Device has 7 wheels, 7 readout windows, and a clearing bar. Original instructions. Brown-painted stand to rest calculator on. Guarantee certificate and order form from company for further machines.
Condition good; incomplete (stylus missing).
References
Mikey McGovern; 'Mechanical calculation'; Explore Whipple Collections online article; Whipple Museum of the History of Science; University of Cambridge: https://www.whipplemuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-whipple-collections/calculating-devices/mechanical-calculation
Events
Description
Pascal type calculator
In 1642, Blaise Pascal devised what was probably the first simple adding machine using geared wheels.
Early mechanical adding machines consisted of a keyboard on which to enter the numbers, a level to be pulled to add them (or pushed to subtract them), and an accumulator to display the results. The accumlator was a set of geared wheels, with numbers 0 to 9 printed around their circumferences, and each wheel corresponding to a decimal place. Each time a wheel made a full rotation, the next decimal place up moved round by one. This basic mechanism remained very similar until the mid 1960s.
20/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson on 20/10/2002
FM:44644
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