Object Details
- patentee
- Campbell, J. T.
- Campbell, J. T.
- Description
- This U.S. Patent Office model for a finger-operated adding machine has four metal wheels set flat into a wooden case with a metal top (the fifth wheel is missing). Around the top edge of each wheel are ten short pins labeled clockwise from 0 to 9. Above each wheel is a round opening in the case. The edge of this opening is also labeled clockwise from 0 to 9. The mechanism linking the wheels is out of order. The patent tag is tied to the machine. It reads: 24.990 (/) J.T. Campbell (/) Adding Mch. (/) Patented August 9, (/) 1859.
- John T. Campbell also took out patents for an "Improvement in Portable Fence," U.S. Patent 63,853, April 16, 1867; an “Improvement in Lifting-Tongs,” U.S. Patent 130,194, May 1, 1877; and a 'Revolving Cultivator," U.S. Patent 329137, October 27, 1885.
- According to U.S. Census records and a biographical account, Campbell was born in 1833. Raised near a saw mill in Parke County, Indiana, he worked variously as a carpenter, a surveyor and engineer, and a hotelkeeper. During the Civil War, he organized an infantry regiment to fight for the Northern cause. Captain Campbell was disabled by a war wound. On his return, he obtained various local and state offices. By 1880 he had moved to Indianapolis, where he worked briefly as a clerk in the Indiana State Bureau of Statistics. He then retired to Parke County.
- References:
- U.S. Patent 24990, August 9, 1859.
- A. T. Andreas, Atlas Map of Parke County, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois: by the author, 1874, p. 29.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- 1859
- ID Number
- 1987.0107.01
- catalog number
- 1987.0107.01
- accession number
- 1987.0107
- Object Name
- adding machine
- Object Type
- Patent Model
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- wood (overall material)
- paper (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 3 cm x 26.2 cm x 10.5 cm; 1 3/16 in x 10 5/16 in x 4 1/8 in
- place made
- United States: Indiana, Rockville
- place patented
- United States: Indiana, Rockville
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Adding Machines
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_690697
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-0fa0-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
