The fact that Barbour, Baldwin, Pottin, Ludlum and Burroughs attempted to produce a recording-adding machine shows that as far back as 1872, and at periods down to 1888, there was at least in the minds of these men a conception of the usefulness of such a machine, and the fact that there were five with the same thought is fairly good evidence of the need for a machine of this class. [Sidenote: _Burroughs a bank clerk_] In some of the human-interest articles issued through the advertising department of the Burroughs Adding Machine Co. it is stated that Wm. Seward Burroughs was a bank clerk prior to his efforts at adding machine construction. It is conceivable, therefore, that his first efforts at adding machine invention should be directed toward the production of a machine that would be of service in the bank for the bringing together of the loose items of account that are to be found in the form of checks, drafts, and the like, by printing a record of the items and their totals during the process of adding them together. [Sidenote: _Felt interested in recorder Art_] It is not surprising, therefore, that a manufacturer of a successful calculating machine should, through his contact with the trade, come to the conclusion that there was use for a machine of this class in the banks. As proof of this, we find that an application for a recording-adding machine patent was filed January 19, 1888, by D. E. Felt, which was allowed and issued June 11, 1889. [Illustration] [Illustration: From Drawings of Felt Patent No. 405,024] [Sidenote: _Felt’s first recording machine_] Some of the drawings of this patent will be found reproduced on the opposite page, from which the reader will note that Felt combined his scheme for recording with the mechanism of the machine he was then manufacturing and selling under the trade name of “Comptometer.” In this patent is shown the first application of the type sector combined with the individual type impression for printing the figures of the items as they were added, thus giving equal impression, whether there were one or a dozen figures in the item or total to be printed. While the average mechanical engineer would not at a glance recognize any great advantage in placing the type figures directly on the sector instead of using the type-wheel and segment gear to drive it, as shown in two of the previously described patents, there is plenty of evidence of its advantage in the fact that all the later successful inventors have followed the Felt scheme. It provided more simple construction for the narrow space these parts must occupy for practical linear spacing. [Sidenote: _Fell recording mechanism combined with his calculating machine_]