Add-A-Count Scale
Object Details
- date made
- 1950s
- maker
- Child Guidance Toys
- Description
- During the 1950s, the number of children in the United States grew rapidly. Several manufacturers introduced toys intended to communicate elementary ideas. The Add-A-Count scale, made by Child Guidance Toys of New York City, well illustrates this trend. The red, white, and blue plastic toy is a balance with weights in the form of numbers. The weight of the weight is proportional to the size of the number. Hence a "3" on one arm will balance a "2" and a "1" on the other. There are two weights for each digit from 1 to 5 and one weight for each digit from 6 to 9, making a total of 14 weights. The weights and scale fit in a paper box, which has on it a drawing of a girl playing with the toy. In the 1960s, the toy was sold by instrument dealers like Edmund Scientific Company of Barrington, New Jersey. It sold for $1.00—by 1968 the price was $1.50.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- place made
- United States: New York, New York City
- subject
- Mathematics
- Education
- Toys
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Learning Arithmetic
- Science & Mathematics
- Arithmetic Teaching
- Credit Line
- Gift of Uta C. Merzbach
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- ID Number
- 1988.0155.01
- accession number
- 1988.0155
- catalog number
- 1988.0155.01
- Object Name
- toy
- Physical Description
- plastic (overall material)
- paper (case material)
- Measurements
- overall: 8.8 cm x 21 cm x 17.7 cm; 3 7/16 in x 8 1/4 in x 6 15/16 in
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
- Record ID
- nmah_694432
Add-A-Count Scale
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