Mathematical instruments from times of crisis

Abstract

The objects shown in the exhibits or stored in the cabinets of museums and mathematics departments—or used in mathematical research and teaching—rarely convey a sense of crisis. However, crises create new roles, mix cultures, bring about new needs, make unexpected use of time (and sometimes free time from usual duties), and generate fear. All of these changes have shaped these now-placid objects. Examination of a few instruments, considering them as part of the lives of the mathematicians and others associated with them, suggests such connections.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the British Society for the History of Mathematics for sponsoring the meeting where this paper was first presented, and to Isobel Falconer, Benjamin Wardhaugh, and an anonymous reviewer for suggesting useful improvements. In this time, when many libraries and archives have not been readily accessible, many have patiently answered queries. Particular thanks to David Grier. The author apologizes to historians whose work—especially recent work—has been ignored.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 For a related online exhibition, see https://americanhistory.si.edu/documentsgallery/exhibitions/dewitt_1.html. Further information about and images of this object (catalog number 333591) are in databases of the Smithsonian Institution. At present, the record can be reached by searching https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_997048.

2 A Russian abacus collected by John Tradescant in the early seventeenth century survives in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum. This appears to be listed (as Indian) in (Tradescant et al. 1656, 54).

3 Curiously, the numeral frame took quite a different form in France under the influence of Marie Pape-Carpentier. See https://musee-ecole-montceau-71.blogspot.com/2017/10/le-boulier-numerateur.html. On Pape-Carpentier, see (Betham-Edwards 1880, 131–170), although this source does not mention the abacus.

4 For a further description of the punch card, see the collections database of the National Museum of American History at https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_694416. The catalog number of the object is 317982.02.

5 For an example of such a punch card, see https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1848444. The catalog number of the object is 1988.3098.02.

6 For an example of such a punch card, see https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_694742. This object has catalog number 221419.11.

7 For an oral history of Grace Murray Hopper carried out by Uta C Merzbach in 1968, see Computer Oral History Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

8 This object has National Air and Space Museum number A20170084000 with envelope A20170084001. See records https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/computer-nuclear-bomb-effects-small/nasm_A20170084000 and https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/envelope-computer-nuclear-bomb-effects-small/nasm_A20170084001. The object is somewhat smaller than the version of the instrument described later.

9 For an image of the object at the Ingenium in Ottawa, Canada, with their number 1995.0359.001, see https://ingeniumcanada.org/ingenium/collection-research/collection-item.php?id=1995.0359.001.

10 NASM object A19771739000. See https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/computer-bomb-damage-effect-nuclear-perry-graf/nasm_A19771739000.

11 NASM object A19771736000.

12 According to the ProQuest database, the same review ran 5 January 1964 in the same newspaper.

13 Accession File 1990.0688, NMAH.