Burroughs Class I / Model 9 Adding Machine, 1910
Add to SetSummary
Mechanical adding machines were indispensable office equipment used before the computer era. These devices were perfected by the American Arithmometer Company in 1886, spurred on by William Seward Burrough's desire to reduce drudgery in clerical arithmetic work. Transistors and electronic desktop calculators displaced adding machines in the 1950s; by the 1970s, microchips reduced calculators to the size of a shirt pocket.
Mechanical adding machines were indispensable office equipment used before the computer era. These devices were perfected by the American Arithmometer Company in 1886, spurred on by William Seward Burrough's desire to reduce drudgery in clerical arithmetic work. Transistors and electronic desktop calculators displaced adding machines in the 1950s; by the 1970s, microchips reduced calculators to the size of a shirt pocket.
Artifact
Adding machine
Date Made
1910
Location
Not on exhibit to the public.
Object ID
90.203.1
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Material
Glass (Material)
Iron alloy
Plastic
Paper (Fiber product)
Wood (Plant material)
Felt (Textile)
Dimensions
Height: 12.5 in
Width: 17 in
Length: 17.5 in
Weight: 67 lbs
Inscriptions
front: BURROUGHS DETROIT, MICH. U.S.A. front, plaque: No. 9 - 142725 clipping, front: BURROUGHS CLASS I ADDING MACHINE MANUFACTURED IN 1895 back: PATENTED SEP.12,1893. SEP.28,1897. DEC.13,1898. MAR.29,1904. JUN.12,1906. JUL.3,1906. NOV.20,1906. DEC.21,1907. JUL.14,1908. OTHERS PENDG.
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