Underwood Sundstrand Bookkeeping Machine with Stand

This machine reflects the consolidation that occurred in the American office machine business in the 1920s and 1930s. The ten-key, printing Sundstrand adding machine had its origins in the work of Rockford, Illinois, machine tool makers and inventors Oscar and David Sundstrand, who first put an adding machine on the market around 1915. In January of 1927, the assets and business of Sundstrand Corporation were acquired by the Elliott Fisher Company of New York, a maker of accounting machines. At the end of that same year, the combined firm merged with the Underwood Typewriter Company, also of New York. By 1933 Underwood Elliott Fisher Company sold three forms of accounting machines patterned after earlier Underwood, Elliott Fisher and Sundstrand products.

The object has a gray metal case and stand with a ten-key adding machine keyboard at the center. To the left of the keyboard is a column of four function keys. Left of this is a column of keys indicating years (62, 71, 70, 65, 1966, 1967, 56, 55, 54, 53, 68 and 58). Left of this column is a column of keys for indicating days of the month and another column indicating months of the year. To the right of the number keys is a column of keys indicating various types of transactions. Left of these are various function keys and levers. This includes a subtraction key.

At the back of the machine is a wide rubber carriage on a metal frame, and a printing mechanism. There is an electric cord. The open metal stand for the machine has four rubber feet. The motor is attached to the stand under the machine. Dimensions given are those of the machine. Dimensions of the stand are: 118.8 cm. w. x 63.5 cm. d. x 66 cm. h.

A mark above the keyboard reads: UNDERWOOD {/} SUNDSTRAND (/) Made in U. S. A. (/) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. A mark on the right side of the machine reads: 730675 (/) DCU284091.

According to the Fédération Nationale des Chambres Syndicales de la Mécanographie, an Underwood Sundstrand machine with serial number 644,000 sold in 1950 and one with serial number 830,100 in 1953, hence the date.

References:

The mergers that led to the formation of Underwood Elliott Fisher are described in Typewriter Topics.

Fédération Nationale des Chambres Syndicales de la Mécanographie, Fédération de Reprise officielle des Machines à Ecrire, Machines à Calculer . . ., Lyon, 1970, p. 86

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