Annals of the Dudley Observatory

The original Scheutz Calculating Machine was sold to the Dudley Observatory of Albany, New York, USA, in 1856. Subsequently a duplicate was made and the second machine remains in London. Both machines would ultimately reside in their respective national museums, the Smithsonian and the British Museum.

While at the Dudley Observatory the Scheutz machine was used some and it's operation is described in some detail in the Annals of the Dudley Observatory, published in 1866. A notice of it's publication appeared in the Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society at that time.

I was able to obtain a copy of this book from the Library of Congress and I have scanned and OCR'd the pages relevant to the Scheutz machine for this website. The remainder of the book consists mostly of tables of numbers.

The frontispiece included an engraving of the Observatory grounds. (Click to enlarge)

There was also a two-page fold-out of the Scheutz machine. (Click to enlarge)

Click below for pages 116-126 from the Annals of the Dudley Observatory

Charles Hall
July 2006