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Burroughs Class 3 Adding Machine

National Museum of American History

Object Details

Burroughs Adding Machine Company
Description
This full keyboard printing adding machine is manually operated. It has a metal frame painted black, with a metal keyboard painted green. There are five columns of black and white color-coded plastic keys. The non-add, total, and subtotal keys are on the left. The repeat key is on the right. In front of the keys is a row of six number dials, under glass. These indicate the sum of numbers added. The crank on the right side operates the machine.
Behind the keyboard is the black ribbon, printing mechanism, narrow carriage, and paper tape. The tape is visible to the operator, unlike that on earlier Burroughs machines. There are six digit type bars with an additional type bar right of these that prints symbols.
The machine is marked on the back of the keyboard, with a line drawn through the letter “O”: BURROUGHS. It is marked on a metal tag at the base of the front: 3-283826. It is marked on the back (partly obscured): BURROUGHS ADDING MACHINE CO.
Compare 323588. Burroughs acquired the Pike Adding Machine Company of Orange, New Jersey, in 1909. This machine is very similar to the Pike.
Credit Line
Gift of Western Union Telegraph Company
1915
ID Number
1986.0192.01
catalog number
1986.0192.01
accession number
1986.0192
maker number
3-283826
Object Name
adding machine
Physical Description
glass (overall material)
plastic (overall material)
metal (overall material)
paper (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 25.5 cm x 28.5 cm x 50 cm; 10 1/32 in x 11 7/32 in x 19 11/16 in
place made
United States: Michigan, Detroit
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Adding Machines
American Enterprise
Science & Mathematics
Exhibition
American Enterprise
Exhibition Location
National Museum of American History
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Record ID
nmah_690654
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-0dd0-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

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