Brunsviga Trinks-Triplex Calculating Machine
date: label: date made
content: 1921
name: label: maker
content: Grimme, Natalis & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: Franz Trinks led development of the Brunsviga calculating machine from the 1890s, steadily patenting improvements in Odhner’s original design. The Trinks Triplex was one of these.
label: Description
content: The pinwheel lever-set non-printing machine has a black metal housing, a steel mechanism, and 20 levers that are used to set numbers. A steel crank with a wooden handle that extends from the right side of the machine is rotated 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 20 windows that show dials of the result register on the right and 12 windows for the revolution register on the left. This revolution register has no carry. The digits on the revolution register dials are white for additions and red for subtractions. At the back of the machine is a second revolution register with 12 windows. There is a carry in this register.
label: Description
content: The revolution register and the result register have sliding decimal markers. Pushing back a button at the front of the machine releases the carriage for shifting. Rotating wing nuts at the ends of the carriage zeros the registers on it. Rotating appropriate wing nuts on the left side of the machine zeros the pinwheels and the second revolution register. A bell on the left end of the carriage rings when the result passes through zero.
label: Description
content: The case consists of a wooden base with a handle in the side, and a curved metal cover painted black.
label: Description
content: As the name suggests, the Trinks Triplex was three machines in one. It could be used simply to generate results of up to 20 digits. The mechanism also includes a split device for the result register, which allows one to solve two problems simultaneously. Finally, one can figure the sub-result of a problem in one section and accumulate the total result in the second, showing all factors on the machine at the conclusion.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: J. H. McCarthy, <I>The American Digest of Business Machines</I>, Chicago: American Exchange Service, 1924, p. 70.
label: Description
content: E. M. Horsburgh, ed., <I> Handbook of the Napier Tercentenary Celebration of Modern Instruments and Methods of Calculation</I>, Edinburgh: G. Bell & Sons, 1914, pp. 84–91.
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
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of University of Michigan, School of Public Health
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.324277
label: accession number
content: 256654
label: catalog number
content: 324277
label: maker number
content: 45666
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19.3 cm x 43.5 cm x 29.5 cm; 7 19/32 in x 17 1/8 in x 11 5/8 in