WashDC 2004: Frank Baldwin's Story

In case you don't want to read the photo'd interpretive text, it says

Frank Baldwin, the inventor of this calculating machine, tried to sell one to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1874. He received this response from the auditor of freight receipts:

"You are a year too late. If I could ahve had a machine like that a year ago, it would haveen invaluable. I have had a series of tables prepared, giving rates on quantities from 1 to 2,000 pounds, carried from 1 to 550 miles, making over a million computations. Each sheet has been checked by seven different clerks, and I have just had them lithographed for distribution to the agents."

Baldwin checked the figures anyway. He found dozens of errors and made the sale. The freight auditor wrote him: "It does the work of at least three men with a certainty of correctness and greater rapidity. For Railroad Companies, calculating mileages and tonnages, it is, I consider, invaluable."

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