Description

The present example is datable circa 1918-1920 according with the patents inscribed on the plate : “Pat. June 27. 1916 and nov. 26 1918” and the address on the cardboard printed slip case : “Dayton, Ohio”.

The company moved in Massachusetts in the early 1920s’.

” This is one of the first mathematical instruments named for a movie character, and one of few associated with a vaudeville act. The history of the educational toy also suggests the role of Dayton, Ohio, as a place of American invention. […].

A performing monkey named Consul, trained in Britain, came to the United States in 1909. Apparently he was not the first trained monkey to be given the name Consul, but seems to have been the best publicized. He performed in vaudeville shows across the country. Records in the National Cash Register (NCR) Company Collection at Dayton History indicate that the monkey visited Dayton and NCR on September 23, 1910. A surviving photograph there shows him toying with a cash register. Moreover, a short film entitled “Consul Crosses the Atlantic,” released in 1909, described Consul’s visit to the United States. The movie was showing in Chicago as late as 1915.

Also in 1915, William Henry Robertson, a draftsman at NCR, applied for two patents. The first, for “a calculating device,” was for “a quick and simple method of finding results” on a chart. The second was for a toy using the same mechanism “to stimulate the interest of children in the study of numbers.” In this second patent, the linkage took the form of a monkey. Robertson assigned both of his patents to the Educational Novelty Company of Dayton, which soon was selling Consul.” (see https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/consul-educated-monkey-or-inventions-william-h-robertson).

This is the third version of the calculating monkey, of quite early production.

The present example has some traces of uses and rust but it is on perfect working order.

It preserves its original printed slip case, which is rarely present. Some waterstains and tears.

The square measures 15x14cm.