Vannevar Bush's Profile Tracer

Object Details

Bush, Vannevar

Description: This experimental instrument for land surveying consists of a mechanism in a wooden box that is suspended between two wooden wheels with rubber tires. The wheels are aligned as in a bicycle, with the box in between. There is a roll of paper mounted on top of the box. If one runs the wheels over a surface, the combined action of a servo-mechanism and an integrator produce a profile of the land traversed which is plotted on the paper. The engineer Vannevar Bush received a patent for this instrument in 1912, and it was the subject of the master's degree dissertation he wrote at Tufts University the next year. Servo-mechanisms, integrators, and the graphical display of results played a major role in several computing instruments Bush later designed. He also is remembered for ideas about information retrieval that inspired later thinkers to develop what is now called hypertext.
Location: Currently not on view

1912

Physical Description: metal (frame, mechanism material); rubber (wheels material); wood (mechanism material); paper (mechanism material); glass (mechanism material)
Measurements: overall: 32 cm x 156 cm x 55 cm; 12 5/8 in x 61 7/16 in x 21 5/8 in

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Mathematics; Mechanical Integrators and Analyzers; Science & Mathematics; Measuring & Mapping

National Museum of American History

GUID (Link to Original Record): https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746aa-64bc-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa