Label
Cyclometer, 1841
Oren Cummins
Montpelier, VT
Wood, metal
Gift of Albert O. Cummins, 1908.1
For as long as people have been traveling, they have wanted to know how fast they were going and how far they’ve traveled. The cyclometer (the word means “circle-measurer”) does just that. Today, cyclometers usually employ GPS to track movement, but before that technology was available, analog versions did the same job.
This cyclometer was created by Oren Cummins of Montpelier in 1841, and is entirely handmade. The concept of measuring distance was not new, but Cummins’s solution is noteworthy because it so clearly depended entirely on his own ingenuity to implement. The gears are hand-cut and hand-numbered, and the whole is a remarkable combination of applied mathematics and precision crafting.
Cummins used his cyclometer on carriage wheels. One end of the cyclometer would be attached to the hub of the wheel, and as the wheel turned, it would begin the tracking. Gears closer to the wheel measured shorter distances, and when they completed a certain number of revolutions they would trigger the next wheel to advance, and so on down the line. Ultimately, this cyclometer was capable of recording up to 40,000 miles.