Rotary Measure, U.S. Patent Office Model

Object Details

patentee

Davis, Jr., Daniel

Wright, Edward

Description

This small U.S. Patent Office model for a counter has the shape of an old-fashioned door key, with a dial protruding from the middle. A screw attached to a nozzle links to a shaft and rotates the dial. The edge of this dial is divided into 100 parts, which are labeled by 10s. A fixed pointer screwed to the middle of the dial indicates its reading. A second nozzle is tied to the object. The object illustrates the patent for “An Improvement in Rotary Devices” (#182,177) taken out by Daniel Davis Jr. and Edward Wright on September 12, 1876. There is no patent model tag.

Daniel Davis Jr. (1844-1919) was the son of Massachusetts instrument maker Daniel Davis (1813-1887). The elder Davis retired from Boston to his home town of Princeton, Mass., in 1852 to farm. Some time after 1870, the younger Daniel Davis moved to Worcester, where he worked as a brass founder and took out a patent for water filters with one Benaiah Fitts.

Edward Wright was born in New York around 1834. He patented an improvement in pickers for looms in September 1867. He received another patent for improvement in self-acting mules for spinning in February 1870. In September 1876 Wright and Davis received the U.S. patent for improvement in rotary measures for which this object is the model.. Both men were then living in Worcester.

References:

Daniel Davis Jr. and Benaiah Fitts, "Improvement in Water-Filters," U.S. Patent 146442, January 13, 1874.

Edward Wright, “Improvement in Pickers for Looms.” U.S. Patent 69880, 16 September 1867.

Edward Wright, “Improvement in Self-Acting Mules for Spinning.” U.S. Patent 99511, 1 February 1870.

Edward Wright and Daniel Davis Jr., “Improvement in Rotary Measures.” U.S. Patent 182177, 12 September 1879.

U.S. Census, 1860, 1870, 1880.

Web site of the Princeton, Mass., Historical Society, http://www.princetonmahistory.org/people-groups/residents/daniel-davis

Location

Currently not on view

1876

date patented

1876-09-12

ID Number

MA.308942

catalog number

308942

accession number

89797

Object Name

counter, analog

counter

Object Type

Patent Model

Physical Description

steel (overall material)

Measurements

overall: 1 cm x 9.4 cm x 5.4 cm; 13/32 in x 3 11/16 in x 2 1/8 in

place patented

United States: Massachusetts, Worcester

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Mathematics

Counters

Science & Mathematics

National Museum of American History

subject

Mathematics

Record ID

nmah_690542

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-0de4-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa