Olivetti Divisumma 24 Calculating Machine (So Marked on Back)
date: label: date made
content: 1959
name: label: maker
content: Olivetti
notes: label: Description
content: Established as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908, the Italian firm founded by engineer Camillo Olivetti (1868–1943) began manufacturing a calculating machine in 1940. After World War II, it introduced a ten-key printing machine capable of division, the Divisumma 14. This is a later version of that machine, the Divisumma 24, which was introduced in 1956. Like many Olivetti products, these adding machines reflect the style of artist and industrial designer Marcello Nizzoli and have received attention for that reason. This example was manufactured after Olivetti acquired the Underwood Typewriter Company in 1959.
label: Description
content: The machine has a gray metal case with a black lid. The yellow keyboard has a block of nine white number keys. Below these are three black keys with white dots for setting single, double, and triple zeros. To the right are two sets of four keys. Four of these are green, and relate to operations in the green register. The other four are black, and relate to operations in the black register (keys of one color are not grouped).
label: Description
content: To the left of the numeral keys are the backspace key and the keyboard clearing key. Below them is the thumb add bar. Left of these are two levers with green knobs. One, marked A, predetermines automatic or non-automatic printing of the product. The other, marked R, is a repeat key. Further keys are to the left of these. The column indicator is above the keyboard.
label: Description
content: The printing mechanism toward the back includes four digit wheels used to set dates, 13 digit wheels for numbers, and two type wheels right of the digit-wheels to print symbols. Totals are printed in red. The serrated plastic edge helps to tear the paper tape.
label: Description
content: A mark on the top of the machine reads: underwood * olivetti. A mark on the back reads: Divisumma 24 Olivetti (/) MADE IN ITALY FABRIQUE EN ITALIE. A plate attached to the bottom has the serial number: 2D014738.
label: Description
content: The machine also has a gray plastic cover, three paper tapes and two cords stored. The tapes are 8.8 cm. (3-1/2”) wide.
label: Description
content: Compare 1979.0932.01.
label: Description
content: The Kansas physician Richard L. Sutton Jr. reported when he donated the object to the Smithsonian Institution in 1979 that he found it “a meritorious machine, to which I have been strongly attached emotionally.”
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: S. Kicherer, <I>Olivetti: A Study of the Corporate Management of Design</I>, New York: Rizzoli Inc, 1990.
label: Description
content: N. Shapira, <I>Design Process Olivetti 1908–1978</I>, [Ivrea, Italy]: Olivetti, 1979, pp. 56–57.
label: Description
content: Olivetti, <I>Instructions for the Operation of Tetractys Printing Calculator</I>, 1958. (1979.0854.02).
label: Description
content: Accession file.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Italy
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Calculating Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Richard L. Sutton, Jr.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.0854.01
label: maker number
content: 2D014738
label: accession number
content: 1979.0854
label: catalog number
content: 1979.0854.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 24.5 cm x 24.5 cm x 42 cm; 9 21/32 in x 9 21/32 in x 16 17/32 in