Brunsviga Model A Calculating Machine
date: label: date made
content: ca 1905
name: label: maker
content: Grimme, Natalis & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: This lever-set pinwheel non-printing and manually operated calculating machine has a steel casing painted black, a steel mechanism, and nine levers for entering numbers. A small metal lever is at the top left of the machine. A steel crank with a wooden handle that extends from the right side of the machine rotates backward (clockwise) for addition and multiplication and forward (counterclockwise) for subtraction and division.
label: Description
content: At the front of the machine is a movable carriage with 18 windows that show dials of the result register on the right and ten windows for the revolution register on the left. The revolution register has no carry mechanism. Digits in this register are white for additions and red for subtractions. The carriage has holes for decimal markers, but no decimal markers are present. Depressing a lever at the front of the machine releases the carriage for shifting. A wing nut on the left side of the carriage zeros the result register. The zeroing mechanism for the result register extends from the right side of the carriage, but is broken. A bell on the left end of the carriage rings when the result passes through zero.
label: Description
content: The machine rests on a wooden base, but the lid of the case is missing.
label: Description
content: Three marks on the front of the machine read: BRUNSVIGA, No 6384, and G.N.&C.C.a.A. a mark on the left side reads: Grimme, Natalis & Co.(/) Braunschweig - Brunswick (/) System W.T. Odhner (/) Patentirt in: (/) Deutschland (/) England (/) Osterreich (/) Ungaren (/) Frankreich (/) V.St.v.Nord-Amerika (/) Schweiz [. . .] 4578.
label: Description
content: This example is from the collection of Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: E. Martin, <I>The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen)</I>, trans. P. A. Kidwell and M. R. Williams, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, pp. 109–113.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Lower Saxony, Brunswick
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Calculating Machines
label: See more items in
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.323600
label: catalog number
content: 323600
label: accession number
content: 250163
label: maker number
content: 6384
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16.5 cm x 48 cm x 19.5 cm; 6 1/2 in x 18 29/32 in x 7 11/16 in