Rabbit hole - toy tank and following the thread in online information

When looking for ads of the Baby Calculator, came across the Johnson Smith & Co company - sellers of novelty items. In a full-page 1930 ad, their toy tank description intrigued; what's the catch, how does this work?

The description claims it will move and climb obstacles, but "What makes it go is somewhat of a mystery, for there is no mechanism to wind up as is usually understood with mechanical toys,...".

In today's connected world with enormous amounts of information online, it was possible to find out about this! With the simple search for toy tank and "baby tank", some images from auctiuons over the past years were found to still be online. This shows the same toy, the below sold under the Animate Toy brand:

(Millers Auction Co - from a closed, ended auction)

The Johnson Smith & Co version more likely is a later, cheaper plain grey version; also still pictured at an antique store:

 
(Flying Tiger Antiques - from listing of item already sold)

This shows a picture of the drive mechanism underneath the toy - and a helpful patent date of June 20, 1916. With that date, the two patents that relate to this toy are easily found. These are US patents 1,187,659 and 1,187,660.

The first of these patents gives a very clear explation of the simple drive mechanism. The trick is to use a dampening material, instead of expensive gearing plus governor to slow down the spring unwinding. The single large driving mechanism is shown inside the housing of a toy bug.

The axle 2 is fitted firm in the housing, the flat (on the right) preventing its rotating. The fork 7 is fitted rigidly to the axle 2. The barrel 3 with wooden wheel 5 can rotate about this axle, and can wind and be driven by the spring. The barrel (tube 3 and end-caps 4) is filled with a molasses, pitch or tar-like substance that will sdampen and slow down the motion of the barrel against the fork 7. Very ingeneous and low cost.

The patents also give the name of the inventor; Edward S. Savage. Seeing the number of patents listing him as inventor, he was a prolific inventor - with about 50 patents, mainly for for toys.

   

Again the vast trove of online, scanned information yields more background; Mr Savage was featured in an illustrated article in an issue of Popular Mechanix of January 1939 - he even made the cover:

The full article can be read in the Mechanix Illustrated issue on The Archive. Pages 35 - 39, then 125 etc.

Mr Savage was a very active and also a very succesful inventor of toys - he's for example the inventor of the wobble-toys that are still made today.

At the bottom of page 39 of the Mechanix Illustrated magazine some toy bugs are pictured, those probably are the same toy that was drawn in the 1916 patent (applied for in 1914).

Again, specimens survive and get photographed when sold online, giving us color images. The pictures of one listing included a view of the bottom of the bugs, indeed showing the single drivewheel - one specimen perhaps lost its wooden wheel, or is a modified design with the end-caps (4) enlarged to also act as wheel. The cucumber bug still has its wheel, just as in the June 20, 1916 patent.

(Etsy - from listing of sold item)

So - the mystery of the drive is explained, and even revealed who created it. With portait and profile!

This little exploration, started by wondering about a line in the ad would have been hard to do a few decadeds ago, now easily possible through pretty amazing troves of online information!

Rabbit hole :-)

Baby Calculator go forth and multiply (a turd)

These are muddled times - with more information available than ever before, recent advancements in information processing have created something new - artificial information. Artificial information including falsehoods is available in larger quantities than ever before.

From a simple web-search for the Baby Calculator, one page really stood out in the search-engine results with its well-phrased explanation of the little gadget. A Symbol Of Social Progress - am intrigued; tell me more!:

Right away in the first paragraph it gets weird: "...one can identify a small thing called a “baby calculator,” which is a piece of equipment left from the period of the approach to reproductive health in modern society. This device, a rather humble tool by today’s measure, allows for a glimpse into the family planning strategies of the previous generations, ...".

One clear signal -apart from it being utter nonsense- is that the grammar sounds right at first reading, but the second half of the first sentence does not close. It seems something a statistical word-generation program would generate. I.e. this looks like artificial information from Artificial Intelligence (AI).

It gets better (or worse).

And it doubles down on this storyline.

The article ends with verbose platitudes that manage to still be surreal: "... the baby calculator of the 1920s is not just a forgotten relic, but rather a symbol of the humanity’s ongoing process of discovery and control over life. "

Normally I would not copy and show an article like this, but in this case did so to show/preserve it. It's an outstanding example of a moment in the development and application of AI. Pages like this are liable to vanish as quickly as they emerge. (But they do enter search engines' indices to muddle the waters, do poison the corpus of information.)

If wanting to have a look at the article, this is the link. The site by the way contains several other finely illustrated and phrased pages of articificial information. They're not all as hilariously wrong as the Baby Calculator page, but definitely all slop. And worryingly, slop with decent SEO.

This page and the whole site is created by a company Egeekowl that is based in Telavi, Georgia (თელავი, საქართველო), doing digital content creating for social media. The channel that this Baby Calculator pages is on/in is centred around a nostalgia theme. Likely with some form of advertising in or around it, this channel's content is claimed to reach an audience (~1M !), mainly in the US.

One of my kids reading the article reacted with derision and disbelief. Another, without paying attention to content, only noted the pretentious language as a red flag to then wonder "hm, is this AI?".

As signalled by Mr Polt's proposing of the term slopbait for a particular species of artificial information, we may need to develop a new vocabulary to describe the various types of AI slop that increasingly invades the human information-sphere. Would this be 'slopfeed'? Or 'feedslop'? Or slopbait! :)

Whilst this artificial information is silly and likely relatively harmless, it still is falsehoods being presented as bona-fide information. Does that make it not just silly, but also morally bad? And then considering the resources being spent (and burnt) for this, would that make it an evil? It is in any case not a positive or good thing, I'd argue. This is bad.

Coming back to the article; this is of course slop.

It's effective slop. Not great slop, only reasonably polished slop - perhaps a turd?

Baby Calculator and magic pricing

These are pretty common, sold in great numbers and many have survived. An American slide-adder of the Addiator or Troncet type. The Baby Calculator from Chicago:

This one is probably from the (late) 1930s and in very good condition. It may not have been used much, or at all. Even the box and the instruction sheet are fine and the original stylus is there too.

It was made after 1928 when the trademark was registered, and will not be later than March 1945. In April a new, updated design was introduced. Note that during the entire run of this type of Baby Calculator, the image in advertising was never updated and always said "patent applied for" instead of trademark registered.
 

The price clearly advertised on the box as $3.50 and again stated as $3.50 in the instruction sheet.

The odd thing is that in all advertisements found so far, the price is $2.50. It's $2.50 from the start of the Baby around 1925, right up to the new design first advertised in April 1945. Older specimens of the Baby Calculator do say on the box that the price is $2.50.

When was it changed to $3.50 ?  

Even more puzzling, although the company's own ads keep stating $2.50 throughout the 30s and 40s, it is also sold via American novelty mail-order firm Johnson Smith & Co for $1.50. And that is bundled together with a novelty magic notepad. Here listed in their 1936 catalogue.

To give an impression of the type of product the calculator is lumped in with; an example full-page magazine ad of the company from 1930:

So the price of this little calculator is a bit magical - somewhere between $1.50 and $3.50. Maybe the 3.50 number was printed to make a buyer feel better about paying 2.50.

As a slide adder the Baby Calculator is fine, but not great. Compared to an Addiator it is relatively flimsy and a bit rough to operate - frankly, inferior in quality.

It does work though. As with all slide adders, the claim of doing all four arithmetic functions is an exageration that might rightly disappoint a buyer. Perhaps even in the 1930s, this was more a novelty item than a serious calculating tool.

Giving the buyer the impression it was a dollar-off bargain may have helped :)

Very early LEGO typewriter - sighting

Spotted this weekend - an early LEGO typewriter.

When the company released set number 234 in 1958 with 1x1 bricks printed with letters, probably one of the things to make with these letter-bricks would have been a typewriter. The keyboard only has 21 keys (may have had a few more) and has an alphabetic layout. This model is relatively simple, but definitely a Lego typewriter.

This build was spotted in a display case in a museum / permanent exhibition / playroom for Lego. (This museum's been almost doubled in size since only a few years ago. It has all the recent themes and sets, and also a lot of history starting with the wooden toys, with loads of special and rare items. Very impressive.)

Applying some legology (by our resident legologist); the faded yellow, warped bricks suggest original 1950's or early 60's parts -that spent serious time in sunlight.

The grey baseplates with blank studs are correct for that period too, as are the round 1x1 old-style pieces. We've some period examples, the 2x4 a bit warped too:

The red 'platen' is made up from macaroni pieces - these do not have the stud notch cut-out to enable fitting on a baseplate so are the very early variant.

This early variant was made 1955-1956 - matching the 1958 letter-bricks. We've  only examples of the 1956-onward macaroni with the stud notch:

Transparent macaroni pieces with stud notch form the corners of the keyboard frame, they needed to fit on a base-plate. These were first introduced, transparent, in set 307 / 1307 of 1958.

The faded yellow bricks of the keyboard-base did show that letter-bricks were moved around, the outline of earlier positions are visible.

This early, 1960-ish, typewriter was in a display with mostly company promotion/sales material made for illustrating booklets or display by the trade. It is made from pieces that match a ~1958 build date. The use of yellow (uncommon back then) and a lot of macaroni also suggests access to ample supply of pieces (e.g. a company 'model room'). There always remains the possibility, however, that it was made later (or even very recently) from period parts, but likely this is a company created promotional piece. 

The museum -of course- also has the more recently issued LEGO typewriter on display:

Quite the contrast with the ~1960 version - this recent official typewriter is much more detailed - as is Lego as a whole, compared to the 1960 system.

Even though needing more imagination to 'see it', it definitely is a typewriter. An early one - perhaps this is even the very first official Lego typewriter! :-)

July 2026 safari - meagre

By special request, visited a large-ish charity second-hand store this week that's not too far away. The store sorts goods in departments, with the 'nice' stuff  getting its own department.

The typewriter shelf with the expected range of beige and plastic machines.

This Remington Noiseless Portable was the sole non-beige machine and kept in the 'nice stuff' corner.  An intact return-lever (often broken - a weak part!), but very obviously missing a spool-cover and the 3-key shows a broken linkage somewhere inside the machine. Play-damage, likely.

All left there - photo-safari only with no 'baggings'.

Experiencing an album - centuries

An album with classical music taken out this weekend.

This one a Columbia issue of Schubert Trio, Opus 99, dating from 1927. The 4 records are in a sturdy album, tied with a ribbon. 

The gold printing on the cover has some flaking/damage, but the album is fine and the records are in excellent shape.

Listening to the entire work means playing the eight sides in their order.

Playing a side starts with winding up the gramophone (~30 turns), placing a new needle, carefully placing the record on the turntable, wiping the surface with the brush to remove any stray debris, start the motor and then gently place the needle on the record.

Then listen to the side, reading the sleeve commentary.

When the side is finished, lift the reproducer off the record, remove and discard the needle and turn over the record - or return to the sleeve and take out the next disk.

Listening to a classical album this way is not a 'hands off', button-press activity - between every ~4 minutes of listening there is the changing-sides ritual.

The introductory note on the first page gives background; that it was composed by Schubert in October 1827. This music was a century old when this performance was recorded in December 1927 in London.

Placing the needle on every side in 2026, the records themselves are now almost a century old. That realisation did add to the listening experience, amazing and wonderful that this is preserved and still playable.

This 1927 recording is today in 2026 availabe for listening online too! Also amazing and wonderful. 

In the online 'capture' of the recording there is a small gap or silence every ~4 minutes where the performance was split over the multiple record sides. For example the switch to side two of part one is at 3:48 in the full piece available on Youtube (or The Archive).

An enaging and enjoyable music listening experience - spanning a few centuries :-)

Comptometer E - part number J281 celluloid window

Perhaps the celluloid window-sheet of a Comptometer was part number J281. During cleaning and repair of my Model E Comptometer, noted a crisply embossed number:

The window sheet may well be original, although this Comptometer clearly was serviced and repaired in the past. So it may be a replacement, but probably done by a (the) company servicing - perhaps in the 1930s using a Model J part? Maybe the spare-parts lists, drawings or Bill of Materials of a Comptometer will turn up in the future. 

The snippets from a repair manual of 1919 on Brooke Boering's site confirm that Felt & Tarrant used three-digit numbers, some with a letter pre-fix. For example on a Model H the subtraction (cut off) lever is part T604, a toggle pivot link shaft is part 865. Perhaps we can now add that the curved celluloid sheet is part J281.

The Model E was a much more complicated machine than its predecessor C. With this model Felt and Tarrant added error-detection and control mechanisms that not only increased cost, but also made it relatively fragile. (These new features would likely have been considered essential by the company in their fighting off the direct competition of the Burroughs Calculator that launched 1912.)

The Model E machine's frame is noticeable thinner than the preceding Model C, comparitively flimsy. The keystems with the many corners (stress concentration at bending) and narrow sections are vulnerable too. This specimen indeed had a broken key-stem and the top plate had lifted from the holding brackets at the front. This distorts the case and can jam the cut off levers.

Even though from the classifieds ad it was clear it was blocked, had a broken keystem and was rough (and dirty!), it also was 25 Euro and a Model E: so did a pick-up of the machine. Model E's are not all that common, that likely is because the E is not as robust as other Comptometers - it is rather fragile, in fact. Even though thousands were made (7700?), the survival rate of the E is expected to be much lower than that of e.g. a C or an F model.

To clean and repair, the usual steps for a Comptometer; the mechanism was taken out, all keystems removed and everything was cleaned. Taking out all keys enables cleaning also of the top plate in the key-area, often has the accumulated dirt of many decades. The Model E key-stems can only really be cleaned when out of the machine. 

The broken 9-stem was given a 'fix'. It really should be hard-soldered or brazed, but not (yet) having the tools for that it was first soldered. To compensate a bit for the soft joint and anycase to mitigate the butt-joint a splint was added. Slots were sawed in both ends and a sliver of iron inserted. (The lower end of the broken keystem was initially thought to be missing - simply could not be found in the case or in mechanism around column 9 - only when re-inserting column 6 did this bit drop out with a tinkle. Lucky!)

The soldered joint then sanded smooth and the key can be fitted back into the machine. This weak keystem not placed in its original corner position of column 8, but swapped with the intact stem of column 7.

This joint is too soft really, but should hold for a few years until a proper hard-soldered (or welded) repair can be considered. 

Again complete and fully functioning - when taking care to operate gently. Re-assembly also needed care, the order of tightening of screws of the case making a difference between columns being blocked and everything working as it should! Another confirmation that the Model E is a fragile machine - at least this specimen.

This particular machine was maybe one of the last to be exported from the US to Holland, before shipping became dangerous and expensive. The nameplate is the factory 'generic' in English without any patents.

The rear of the case lists the patents, from the first 1887 to an October 1913 patent.

This Comptometer was used - judging by the wear it was used heavily. The rust on the sides shows where hands have rubbed off the protective lacquer and even the copper coating to expose the steel. The machine was also serviced and repaired in the past. Several replacement screws in the case show it was taken apart completely at least once. The broken keystem had solder remnants; so when that initially broke the machine was still valuable enough to try a repair to keep it in use.

The new Controlled Key Comptometer Model E - repaired! (And fragile.)