Reuter's Calculating Machine
date: label: date made
content: ca 1910
name: label: distributor
content: Carl H. Reuter
label: maker
content: Schumann & Cie.
notes: label: Description
content: This manually operated, non-printing calculating machine has a brass top painted black that fits closely into a roll-top wooden case, sloping toward the operator. Eight German silver levers on the machine rotate counterclockwise to set a digit. The number entered appears in a row of windows over the levers. Above this row is a steel rod with one sliding decimal marker.
label: Description
content: The handle for operating the machine is right of the levers. The zeroing lever for the entry, as well as the addition & multiplication / subtraction & division lever, are left of the eight German silver levers. Left of this is a compartment with room for an inkwell and loose pieces. The cover of this compartment is missing and it is empty.
label: Description
content: Behind the levers is a carriage with nine revolution register windows and 16 result register windows. Both registers have thumbscrews for setting numbers and sliding decimal markers. There is no carry in the revolution register. Two levers on the right side of the carriage zero its registers.
label: Description
content: When the entry in the result register would become negative (as in subtraction or division), a bell rings. It rings again if a number is added to bring the total to zero or more.
label: Description
content: The brass stepped drums are visible through a sliding panel in the bottom of the case. Metal lifting handles are on both ends of the case.
label: Description
content: The machine is marked above the entry windows: REUTER’S (/) MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING MACHINE (/) PHILADELPHIA,PA. Metal tags toward the front of the machine read: D.R.G.M. 394014 and: AUSL. PAT. ANGEM. A mark under the operating crank reads: D.R.G.M. (/) 329403. A mark to the left of the entry levers reads: PATENT (/) DEUTSCHLAND No. 217048 (/) OSTERREICH ANGEM. The serial number, inscribed under the carriage on the machine at the right, is 1363.
label: Description
content: This is an example of the Saxonia calculating machine made by Schumann and Company in the German city of Glasshütte, and imported and distributed by the Philadelphia firm of Carl H. Reuter. Reuter advertised as an importer of the Brunsviga and Burkhardt calculating machines in 1906. A machine with a later serial number is from 1913.
label: Description
content: This machine was used at the Sproul Observatory of Swarthmore College.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.323596.
label: Description
content: References:
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. 126–127.
label: Description
content: <I>Railway Age</I>, 42, August 17, 1906, p. 219.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Saxony, Glashütte
label: place distributed
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
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 Swarthmore College
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.0684.01
label: catalog number
content: 1986.0684.01
label: accession number
content: 1986.0684
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calculating machine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: german silver (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18.5 cm x 67 cm x 24 cm; 7 9/32 in x 26 3/8 in x 9 7/16 in