Todd Protectograph Personal Check Writer
Object Details
- Date
- early 20th Century
- Medium
- metal, felt, rubber, ink
- Dimensions
- 4 5/16 × 5 13/16 × 3 5/8 in. (10.9 × 14.8 × 9.2 cm)
- Caption
- This check writing machine manufactured by the G. W. Todd Company of Rochester, N.Y., served to emboss and ink a number value in the payment field on a check, so as to make it difficult to alter. Using a rotating device mounted on the machine, the operator would select the digits, then position the check so that the print heads aligned with the correct field, and pull down the lever on the left side of the machine to print-emboss the amount on the check. The numbers were marked on the check with ink and a series of small shreds in the paper.
- This device is in poor shape as it is missing the rotating device for selecting digits, the ink reservoir, and the lid. It was owned by the linguist Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, and may have been used for his business, the newspaper Washington Sun, which he published briefly in 1928.
- Accession Number
- 2003.0032.0395
- Type
- check writer
- See more items in
- Anacostia Community Museum Collection
- Data Source
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Metadata Usage
- Not determined
- Record ID
- acm_2003.0032.0395
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