The Science Museum: Recent Acquisitions

Abstract

THE inventor's working model of the first calculating machine capable of multiplying sums of money in sterling currency (£.s.d. and fractions of a penny) has been presented to the Science Museum. The present machine, invented by Mr. E. C. McClure in 1934, requires only one turn of the handle for each digit in the multiplier, so that to multiply any sum of money by a number less than a thousand it is necessary to make only three turns of the handle. The principles embodied in the machine are being used in a new sterling multiplying punch which is being manufactured by Messrs. Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Ltd., who have given the model to the Science Museum. A collection of trade cards issued by English instrument makers to advertise their products, presented by Mr. Thomas H. Court, has recently been placed on exhibition ; they are mostly of the eighteenth century and are of considerable historical interest and importance. The Museum has acquired a large-scale working model of the escapement employed about 1880 in the original Waterbury watches, which were among the first really cheap watches to be made. The group of hearing aids illustrates developments since 1930 ; of special interest are the widely contrasting valve amplifying sets of 1932 and 1938.