Madas Calculating Machine
date: label: date made
content: 1913-1930
name: label: maker
content: Egli, Hans W.
notes: label: Description
content: This manually operated, non-printing stepped drum calculating machine has a brass and steel mechanism painted black, with a black steel cover. Digits are set by pushing down eight German silver levers. The digit set up appears in a row of windows between the levers. A zeroing knob for the levers is left of them. The crank for operating the machine is to the right. To the left of the levers is a window showing a number that relates to automatic division, and two levers, one for automatic division and the other for subtraction / addition-multiplication.
label: Description
content: Behind the levers is a carriage with a row of seven revolution counter register windows and 12 result register windows. The revolution register has no carry mechanism. The zeroing knobs for these registers are on the right of the carriage. Above the entry levers, the revolution counting register and the result register are metal bars that carry sliding decimal markers. Thumbscrews are used to set up numbers in the result register. On the left end of the carriage are a bell that rings to indicate over division (e.g. a negative result), and a mechanism for shifting the carriage. The machine has four rubber feet.
label: Description
content: A mark on the machine to the left of the levers reads: MADAS (/) U.S.A. Ptd Dec. 16th 1913 (/) etc. A mark on the far left reads: No 5095 (/) MADE IN SWITZERLAND. A mark on the outside of the metal cover reads: MULTIPLICATION AUTOMAT. DIVISION ADDITION SUBTRACTION (/) MADAS.
label: Description
content: The steel cover has operating instructions in German and French on a piece of paper pasted inside. The MADAS, designed by Erwin Jahnz, a German living in Switzerland, was produced by the Swiss firm of H. W. Egli. It featured automatic division. The MADAS, introduced in 1913. was made until around 1930.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.317288, MA.324278, MA.323586 and 1982.0794.88.
label: Description
content: This example is from the collection of Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: H. W. Egli, Ltd., <I>MADAS 50 Jahre Arbeit</I>, Zurich.
label: Description
content: Erwin Jahnz, “Calculating Machine,” U. S. Patent 1,81,310, December 16, 1913.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Switzerland: Zürich, Zurich
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Calculating Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Victor Comptometer Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.323586
label: accession number
content: 250163
label: catalog number
content: 323586
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18.5 cm x 49.5 cm x 20 cm; 7 9/32 in x 19 1/2 in x 7 7/8 in