Rheinmetall Calculating Machine

This German stepped drum, full keyboard non-printing calculating machine has a metal frame painted black, with metal handles on each side. It has nine columns of black and white digit keys (rightmost column, white; next column, black; next column, white; next three columns, black; next two columns, white; leftmost column, black), with a red clearance key at the bottom of each column. To the right of the keyboard is a red plastic key, which clears the entire keyboard. Above it is a subtraction key. Left of the keyboard is a keystem without a key. Between the columns are metal rods painted green on one side and white on the other to serve as decimal markers, as in Monroe calculating machines. The keyboard is painted green.

Above the keyboard nine number dials show a number set up on the keyboard. Behind is a carriage with a 17-dial result register and an eight-dial revolution counter. Right of the registers are clearance levers. Rods above both registers carry decimal markers. Thumbscrews set up numbers on the result register. A crank at the front of the machine moves the carriage.

The machine fits closely into a metal base, painted black, which carries the motor. This base has a box at the front with a small window and a lever. On the left are ten black plastic digit keys arranged in four rows. Subtraction, addition, and multiplication bars at the front.

The machine is marked on a metal tag at the front: Rheinmetall. It is marked on a metal tag on the carriage: Büromaschinen (/) Wilhelm Burkhardt (/) Nürnburg-A.Fernruf 26876. It is marked on the left of the base: 5275. It is marked on the left with serial number: 23398. A red tag attached to the machine reads: PATENT DEPT. (/) #109. The machine was model #109 in the collection of the Patent Division of Burroughs Corporation.

Compare 1982.0794.56. The serial number suggests this is a later machine.

Reference:

E. Martin, The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen), pp. 448–452, esp. description of “superautomatic” model SASL.

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