Frank Stephen Baldwin
| Frank Stephen Baldwin | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
April 10, 1838 New Hartford, Connecticut |
| Died | April 8, 1925 (aged 86) Denville, New Jersey |
| Known for | calculating machine |
| Spouse(s) | Mary K. Denniston (Sept. 23, 1848 – July 15, 1928) |
| Children | Frank Pardee Baldwin (Oct. 1, 1873 – March 16, 1946) Emma Virginia Baldwin (Feb. 14, 1877 – Feb. 25, 1952) Eugene Denniston Baldwin (1880–?) George Howard Baldwin (1890–1950) Elbert Stephen Baldwin (Jan. 5, 1882 – June 10, 1956) Lillian Isabel Baldwin (June 2, 1886 – May 23, 1916) Blanche Baker Baldwin (July 28, 1891-Nov. 22, 1969) |
Frank Stephen Baldwin (April 10, 1838 – April 8, 1925) was an American who invented a pinwheel calculator in 1874. He started the design of a new machine in 1905 and was able to finalize its design with the help of Jay R. Monroe who eventually bought the exclusive rights to the machine and started the Monroe Calculating Machine Company to manufacture it.
He was born on April 10, 1838 in New Hartford, Connecticut. In 1840 the family moved to Nunda, New York where he attended the Nunda Institute for elementary school. In 1854 he was enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, New York, but left when his father had an accident that left him as an invalid for the rest of his life. Frank then took over the management of his father's architectural business. In 1855, Frank applied for a patent on an "arrowhead self-coupler" for railroad cars, but the patent was rejected.
In 1860 an uncle in Carlyle, Illinois, designed a corn-planter and Frank assisted in applying for the patent. In 1861, he returned to Carlyle to build a model of the planter and to arrange manufacturing. During the American Civil War he enlisted in the Carlyle Home Guard, but only served for three months. In 1869, he went to St. Louis, Missouri as manager of Peck's Planning Mills.
It was around this time, that he invented an anemometer, for recording the direction of the wind. He also invented a "registering step" for street cars, that recorded the number of passengers entering a streetcar; and a "street indicator" geared from the axle of a trolley that showed each street in succession, from an illuminated box, as the car passed.
Shortly thereafter, he invented and patented the "Recording Lumber Measure", a machine which automatically measured and recorded four different kinds of lumber at the same time. This device started him thinking about calculating machines and this point really marks the birth of the Monroe calculator. In the office of a life insurance company at St. Louis, he had seen an arithmometer, a calculating machine devised by Charles Xavier Thomas around 1820 and which, at the time, was the only mechanical desktop calculator in commercial production. To create a model based on his ideas he hired William Seward Burroughs I to perform the work in his machine shop, which he, with his father, had in St. Louis.
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