Add-A-Count Scale: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

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.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1950s
• maker: Child Guidance Toys
• Object Name: toy
• Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
• Physical Description: 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
• place made: United States: New York, New York City
• Subject: Mathematics
• Subject: Education
• Subject: Toys
• ID Number: 1988.0155.01
• accession number: 1988.0155
• catalog number: 1988.0155.01
• Credit Line: Gift of Uta C. Merzbach
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.