Inventory no. 55139 - Former Display Label
SIR SAMUEL MORLAND'S ADDING MACHINE
1666
Silver and brass; in original paste-board case covered with blind-tooled leather and lined with silk. Inscribed, "Samuel Morland Inventor 1666". Probably made by Humphrey Adamson (fl. 1668-82) of London.
For the addition or subtraction of sums of money in sterling. The eight pairs of dials are marked, "Ten Th:", "Thousands", "Hundreds", "Tens", "Units", "Shillings", "Pence" and "Farthings". The "Index of blew Pin" for turning the dials is missing.
Sir Samuel Morland (1625-1696) was an engineer and Master Mechanic to Charles II. Nicholas Stephenson wrote, "If any Gent. or other, especially Ladies, that desire to look into their disbursements, or laying out, and yet have not time to practise in numbers, they may from Mr. Humphrey Adamson dwelling next Turnstile in Holbourne, have those incomparable Instruments, that will show them to play Addition and Subtraction in £ s. d. and whole numbers, without Pen, Ink or help of Memory: which were the invention of that worthy Person and Ornament of his Country, Sir Samuel Morland, Bart.". On 14 March 1667/8, Samuel Pepys wrote in his Diary, "... my Lord had Sir Samuel Morland's late invention for casting up of sums of £. s.d.; which is pretty but not very useful". Morland also invented a "Multiplying Instrument".
Exhibited with the instrument is a copy (from the Lewis Evans Library) of Morland's, Description and Use of Two Arithmetrick Instruments ..., London, 1673.
[2377]
Lewis Evans Collection.