Brunsviga Model B Calculating Machine

This lever-set, non-printing, and manually operated pinwheel calculating machine has a metal housing painted black, a steel mechanism, and nine levers for entering numbers. At the top left is a small metal lever. A steel operating crank with a wooden handle extends from the right side of the machine. The crank rotates backward (clockwise) for addition and multiplication and forward (counterclockwise) for subtraction and division. A wing nut on the left side zeros the setting levers.

A movable carriage at the front of the machine has 13 windows that show dials of the result register on the right and eight windows for the revolution register on the left. The revolution register has no carry mechanism. The digits on the revolution register dials are white for additions and red for subtractions. A narrow metal rod carries decimal markers for the revolution and result registers. Depressing a lever at the front of the machine releases the carriage for shifting. Rotating wing nuts at the ends of the carriage zero the registers on it. A bell on the left end of the carriage rings when the result passes through zero.

Three marks on the front of the machine read: BRUNSVIGA; No 14544; and CARL H. REUTER (/) LAND TITLE BUILDING (/) PHILADELPHIA, PA. A mark painted on the front of the machine, on the case, and twice on the back reads: UC-CE-C; U.S.E.D. A fifth mark, with an elaborate drawing, is on the back of the machine and reads: BRUNSVIGA (/) REGISTERED TRADE MARK. A mark on the back of the machine reads: PATENTED IN THE UNITED STATES, 12 JUNE 1906.

The case has a wooden base and a metal lid painted black, with a broken lock and leather handle at the front. A mark on it reads: „Brunsviga.”

Compare MA.315904.

This machine came to the Smithsonian from the Office of the Chief of Engineers of the Department of the Army in 1950.

Reference:

E. Martin, The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen), trans. P. A. Kidwell and M. R. Williams, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, pp. 109–113.

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