We already wrote at length about beautiful and intricate Curta calculators, but here is something even more impressive - made back in 178
Johann Helfrich von Müller (January 16, 1746 – 1830) "was an engineer in the Hessian army who conceived the Difference Engine in 1786". He has also designed - among other things - a large and powerful burning mirror, a sun clock, an air pump, an air gun, a barometer, a range finder device, etc.
The W. T. Odhner arithmometer from 1890, manufactured in St. Petersburg - part of the extensive collection of Sergei Frolov who tries to raise money to create Soviet Digital Electronics Museum
The Adall Calculator was manufactured in England from around 1910 and into the 1920s
Also from England, the Adder single-column adding machine was first seen around 1902 (left image)... and on the right you can see the Comptator adding machine, made in Germany in the twenties
This is a 1920s Monroe High Speed Adding Calculator, although it was doubtless pretty slow when compared to today’s technology
Here’s another couple of machines made by Monroe in a bygone era
The Baby Calculator was first manufactured in Chicago in 1929 and this one dates from about 1940
The Remington Rand Calculator model 73P was common in the early fifties (advertised as "Weapon Against Time"
How about this Contex Mechanical Adding Machine from Denmark in 1955? (left) - on the right is the Olympia RAE 4-15
Also from the fifties, the Peter Pan Adding Machine was made in England and was set up to complete decimal calculations
Right image above is the Addiator from Germany, a "flat mechanical hand-held 'Troncet Type' mechanical calculator" introduced in 1920.
This Exactus calculator was designed for the old sterling currency used in the UK until its replacement by decimal currency in 1971 (left), and another Addiator
Here is the Russian version of the Addiator, called "The Progress
"Feliks-M" was the type of Russian mechanical calculators based on original 1890s arithmometers
Not a wizard at math? You could always make use of the Wizard calculating machine shown here on the left
This Soviet calculator was made by Electronika. Models similar to these were apparently the sole brand of calculators sold and used throughout the country back then (left). The Elka 103 Bulgarian calculator dates from the seventies (right)
Here’s the 1961 Facit C1-13 mechanical calculator
The Victor 3900 Electronic Desktop Calculator is from later in the same decade.
Machines such as this full keyboard model made by Burroughs were seen in many offices and other commercial premises, until eventually replaced by electronic printing calculators in the 1970s. This one was designed for calculations in the UK’s pre-decimal sterling currency
This family of Burroughs Portable 1957 Class 5 has some nicely rounded shapes
Here are some programmable desktop calculators, the Canon Canola 1614P (top left), the Compucorp 425G (top right), the Casio model 121-E desk calculator made in 1973 (bottom left), and the Rockwell 940 machine which was commonplace in the seventies too (bottom right)
Your own portable math expert, the Little Professor quizzing calculator was first seen in 1976 (left). On a similar theme, here’s the WIZ-A-TRON electronic teaching calculator from around the same time
If you only had a thin or narrow pocket in which to keep your calculator, Texas Instruments sold this model in the late
Need to write and add things up at the same time? How about the Calcu-pen from the mid seventies?
If you didn’t have room in your pocket for a calculator, why not wear one on your wrist
This boy from 1860 sells the abacus "calculators" (remember these?) in St. Petersburg. Soon electronic calculators, together with the abacus and other vintage adding device, will join a collectible (and pretty much extinct) niche of obsolete technology, so it is a good idea to hang on to a few still surviving examples -
