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Stories

Surely most of you must be wondering how all those antique calculators fit into the house. You can now stop wondering and just take a virtual tour of the collection here:

  • The Collection - all of it!

    • Based on the exhibition I staged in Wasselonne, I decided to take you on a quick and somewhat haphazard stroll through the history of mechanical calculators. The story is here:

  • Walk through history

    A few more reports of interesting exhibitions and meetings:

  • 2015 exhibition on clockmakers and mechanical calculators in the Arithmeum in Bonn
  • 2017 talk by Yves Serra and Valéry Monnier at the Médiathèque Marguerite Yourcenar in Paris
  • 2017 meeting and exhibition of AncMéca and the ALCMB in Wasselonne in the Alsace.
  • 2017 visit to John Napier's tomb in Edinburgh.
  • 2018 visit to the IFHB meeting and general assembly in Essen, Germany.

    Here are some interesting tidbits associated with some of the machines in my collection:

  • MADAS
  • Millionaire
  • Brunsviga B
  • Bunzel Delton
  • Brunsviga 183
  • Early Curtas
  • The naughty Thales GEO
  • Restoration of a Marchant Twinplex
  • A calculator in disguise
  • Thales' printing calculator fiasco
  • A very unexpected find
  • History, operation and restoration of the Calculatrice Sanders / Sanders Calculating Machine
  • The Arithmomètre de Thomas, and a virtual walk through 19th century Paris
  • A Brunsviga G, probably the only one remaining in the universe!
  • One of the most extensive restorations I've embarked upon, and a very rare machine too - the Brunsviga H

    • These are some stories about machines not in my collection (but still fun to read!)

  • 1877 Odhner Arithmometers
  • Baldwin's prototype
  • A warning about Brunsvigas and rust
  • Alan Turing's mechanical calculator
  • A pretty-picture page of geodetic machines, most of which are in my collection.

    Then, some articles highlighting interesting discoveries or knowledge about mechanical calculators:

  • Coordinate transformation with some of the double and triple machines.
  • The mysterious Brunsviga PJ16
  • ...which may be a Brunsviga K
  • Brunsviga N°633 - a deconstruction
  • The Odhner Lusid

    • Some manuals that aren't published elsewhere on the web as far as i am aware of:

  • Monroe G manual
  • Chateau/Dactyle manual - in French!
  • Badenia TE manual - in German!

    And last, but certainly not least, some how-to articles:

  • Some notes on packaging calculators for shipping...
  • Casting keytops for a MADAS keyboard
  • Making a star-shaped input wheel for a Pascaline replica