Left side board
Date: 1954
Inventory Number: HA0115c
Classification: Comparator
Subject:
Inventor: Charlton Joseph Kadio Hinman (1911 - 1977)
Maker: Pentagon Products Company (fl. 1954)
Maker: Arthur M. Johnson
User: Houghton Library, Harvard University (founded 1942)
User: William H. Bond (1915 - 2005)
Maker: Bussmann Manufacturing Division, McGraw-Edison Company (founded 1929)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
32.7 x 35.9 x 34.9 cm (12 7/8 x 14 1/8 x 13 3/4 in.)
Accessories: instruction manual; extra fuses; lens cleaning tissues
Description:
Two-eyepiece optical machine supported on a table with four casters.
Black metal 5-sided frame on 4 legs with casters. Inside hood are mirrors and bulb. Lever attached to plate on rails on underside of object. Small motor mounted close to bottom.
Accessories include typed instructions for Hinman-type collator, extra Buss fuses, and lens cleaning tissues. These are currently stored in the instrument's file.
Black metal 5-sided frame on 4 legs with casters. Inside hood are mirrors and bulb. Lever attached to plate on rails on underside of object. Small motor mounted close to bottom.
Accessories include typed instructions for Hinman-type collator, extra Buss fuses, and lens cleaning tissues. These are currently stored in the instrument's file.
Signedunsigned
Functioncollating materials
Historical AttributesUsed by William Henry Bond, A.B., A.M., Ph.D., Professor of Bibliography, Librarian of the Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library.
Made for Harvard in 1954 by Arthur M. Johnson of Silver Spring, MD, according to Johnson-Bond correspondence in the file. Probably the fourth ever made, and the third commercially-constructed machine. The first commercially-built Hinman collator went to the Folger Shakespeare Library for a massive collation of the first folio of Shakespeare.
The prototype was built by Charlton J. K. Hinman, the inventor, out of apple crates, microfilm projectors, heavy cardboard, and a used erector set; it no longer exists.
Some research concerning such a machine was done before World War II at Harvard, but wartime shortages impeded the research.
Made for Harvard in 1954 by Arthur M. Johnson of Silver Spring, MD, according to Johnson-Bond correspondence in the file. Probably the fourth ever made, and the third commercially-constructed machine. The first commercially-built Hinman collator went to the Folger Shakespeare Library for a massive collation of the first folio of Shakespeare.
The prototype was built by Charlton J. K. Hinman, the inventor, out of apple crates, microfilm projectors, heavy cardboard, and a used erector set; it no longer exists.
Some research concerning such a machine was done before World War II at Harvard, but wartime shortages impeded the research.
Curatorial RemarksThe file contains correspondence between the inventor, Charlton (Kadi) Hinman, and Prof. W. H. Bond, the Houghton Librarian. Also correspondence between Bond and A. M. Johnson, the manufacturer. A 1961 circular describing the latest form of Hinman collator being sold by Johnson is also in the file.
Primary SourcesCharlton Hinman, "Mechanized Collation at the Houghton Library." Harvard Library Bulletin 9 (1955)- 132-134.
William H. Bond, "The Publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Harvard Library Bulletin 10 (1956): 306-324.
William H. Bond, "The Publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Harvard Library Bulletin 10 (1956): 306-324.
ProvenanceHoughton LIbrary, Harvard College Library, 1954; transfer to CHSI, 1986.
Published ReferencesSteven Escar Smith, "'The Eternal Verities Verified:' Charlton Hinman and the Roots of Mechanical Collation," Studies in Bibliography 53 (2000): 129-161.
Steven Escar Smith, "'Armadillos of Invention:' A Census of Mechanical Collators," Studies in Bibliography 55 (2002): 133-170, item A4:
Purchased by the Houghton Library in 1954 (Hinman, "Mechanized Collation at the Houghton Library" 132; and Johnson, Letter to Joseph Rubinstein, 23 Feb. 1957). It was first used by W. H. Bond for a study of the illustrations in the 1865 and l866 editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Bond, "Publication"). Jacob Blanck and William Jackson also tried the machine but never used it for any project (Bond, Letter to the author). The collator was transferred to Harvard's Collections of Historical Scientific Instruments in early 1986 (Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments).