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Summit Adding Machine

National Museum of American History

Object Details

Description
By the mid-20th century, printing adding machines with a block of ten keys sold much more cheaply than full-keyboard machines. Mindful that it was losing sales, Burroughs Adding Machine Company of Detroit set out to manufacture its own ten-key machine. The Burroughs Patent Division acquired examples and blueprints of a recently introduced British adding machine, the Summit.
This manually operated machine has 11 white plastic keys numbered 1 to 11 (for Sterling currency), as well as a 0 bar. Four black keys are on the right and a correction key is on the left. A place indicator is above the keyboard and a printing mechanism behind it. This includes a paper tape 6 cm. (2 3/8”) wide, a black ribbon, and a serrated edge for tearing the paper tape. The rightmost type bar prints symbols. A metal cover fits over the ribbon and mechanism. Left and right wheels turn the tape and advance the paper. A place for a crank exists, but no crank is present. The machine allows one to enter numbers up to nine digits long and prints nine-digit totals.
The machine is marked on the front: Summit. It is also marked there: MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. It has serial number: #1895. A red Burroughs Patent Department tag attached to the machine reads: #300. Compare to 1982.0794.76.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Burroughs Corporation
1950
ID Number
1982.0794.77
maker number
1895
accession number
1982.0794
catalog number
1982.0794.77
Object Name
adding machine
Physical Description
steel (overall material)
paper (overall material)
plastic (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 19 cm x 26 cm x 42 cm; 7 15/32 in x 10 1/4 in x 16 17/32 in
place made
United Kingdom: Grand Bretagne
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Adding Machines
Science & Mathematics
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematics
Record ID
nmah_690105
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-1604-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

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Summit Adding Machine
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