overall: 1.7 cm x 3.6 cm x 3.6 cm; 21/32 in x 1 13/32 in x 1 13/32 in
Object Name:
analog computing component
Place made:
United States: New York, Queens, Long Island City
Date made:
ca 1920-1955
Description:
This small round device includes a steel ring, an eccentric fiberboard disc with a notch in it, another steel ring, a shaft and two short springs, and another steel ring with three holes and two notches. A hole passes through the rings, disc, and shaft. The first ring is marked: 209628 16. It also is marked in black: item 1 [in fact the object matches item 11 on the list – it seems likely that part of the mark has been erased]. The final ring is marked on the side: A240.
Ford Instrument Company built devices like this one a part of mechanisms that carried out calculations (analog computing devices). According to the accession file, this is a “holding friction.” It was used on “various Range Keepers and Computers” “to prevent data from backing out of a gearing line.”
References:
A.B. Clymer, "The Mechanical Analog Computers of Hannibal Ford and William Newell," <I>Annals of the History of Computing</I>, 15, #2, 1993, 19-34.
