Brunsviga J
Described as the Rolls Royce of pinwheel calculators, the Brunsviga J (pronounced "Iot" in German) was Grimme, Natalis & Co's Franz Trinks' answer to the lingering problem of the rotating setting pins, which hence had to be very small (and difficult to operate) in order not to foul other parts of the mechanism. A new mechanism was conjured up which allowed the setting levers to remain stationary, by decoupling them from the rotating pinwheels. The coupling was done by an extra bank of gears at the back, engaging with geared sectors on the pinwheels themselves and on the associated rings with the setting levers. This unfortunately had for effect that there were an additional two buttons added to the crank rest, one for coupling, one for uncoupling the gears, making the operation of these machines just a little less obvious and more tiresome, certainly for the right-hand thumb, as the mechanism is spring-loaded and takes quite a bit of force to operate. There is a way around this, which is to pull the clearing crank on the lefthand side slightly forward, which also frees the setting levers. When the input is set, it can then be pushed backwards into its resting position for calculating. The thumb button permanently remains in its outward position. Brunsviga J's were equipped with a revolution counter at the top (no tens' carry), a result register at the bottom, and an input check register just under the input. Clearing is done by wingnuts, except for the input, which needs a substantial crank on the left side of the machine.I have had several of these machines, and this one, N° 22202, originally hails from France. There is another one, N° 18140, which is currently under restoration (and then I mean a full restoration - nut-and-bolt disassembly, repainting, renickeling ... it is in fact mostly finished, and the machine is reassembled except for the wingnuts for which I still have to turn new conical pins, and for the input clearing handle, which still needs some work, as it was smashed in transport when I originally got the machine)
Very recently I also bought Brunsviga N° 18590, which is a bit special. It is one of the three machines currently known which has a mechanism that is different both from the one described in Trautschold, as from the one that all the other Brunsvigas with fixed setting levers have - this "different mechanism" is explained in the article on "the mysterious Brunsviga PJ" on the stories page. Machine N° 18590 also dates back to 1911, so it is by definition not a Brunsviga PJ16, which was only brought out in 1916. After I published an article about it in Historische Bürowelt, I have added some more detail in the article about the "Brunsviga K". If you want more details, look there!
This gives rise to an interesting game of "find the 10 differences" in the pictures below.
This is machine N° 22202, the regular Brunsviga J. The label on the base reads "Agent Général pour la France et l'étranger L. Neumann, N° 1 Boulevard Poissonnière, Paris". The building was torn down, and cinema "Le Grand Rex" was built in its place in 1932, in beautiful Art Déco.
And here we have our mystery machine, N° 18590:
And some details:
Note the lack of rod under the crank rest, the missing thumb button, the missing link on the left side to operate the setting lever blocking mechanism, and the shorter input levers on this machine. The setting levers and the crank both operate without any further user action, such as pushing buttons. It is really a marvel of technology, and a very clever idea, and I am very excited to have this machine in the collection. You will soon be able to read more about it. Our mystery machine also has a steel instead of a leather handle on the lid. Whether this is original remains to be seen. If it is, it could be another identifying feature, as this is the only Brunsviga J box I have ever seen, spanning the entire range of serial numbers, with a metal handle.
What I would like to ask anyone else who has a Brunsviga Arithmotyp, J, JA, MJ or MJR in their collection, is to have a good look whether the thumb button is there on your machine. I would be very excited to hear about more of these machines still in existence.
And now for something different ...
I have also recently bought this Brunsviga J, N° 18556. It is peculiar because it has a very early tabulating carriage, but nothing like I have ever seen before. Brunsviga clearly was experimenting with tabbing on their top-of-the-line machines. What happens here is that the entire front part of the carriage flips up when you clear it, operating the comb at the back so it will block operation of the main handle when clearing. The extra button which only alows the carriage to be cleared when in its rest postion is missing - the interlock works for any carriage position. One cannot help but think there must be an easier way to obtain this kind of interlock - by the 22.000 range of serial numbers, the tabbing carriage does indeed not show this very peculiar behavior anymore. Does anyone else have a Brunsviga with a carriage like this ? Adaptations were necessary to the body of the machine as well, in order to allow sufficient space for the carriage to flip up, as well as a wider slot for the comb to pass through, since it is now movable. Some pictures of a regular J carriage and my split tabbed carriage:
Slits have to be cut in the front cover in order to accommodate the hooks that keep the carriage closed while not clearing:
In operation:
Moveable comb:
Operating the clearing:
Carriage lock:
Comparison between regular carriage and tabbed carriage:
In operation:
And finally, the portrait of this machine:
Does anyone else have a Brunsviga with this funny carriage clearing system? Please let me know!
Finally, some more family pictures:
