Archimedes C1 and C2
Bought at a Breker auction, while no-one was paying attention. It was my first stepped drum calculator. I was suprised to have it at the price I paid, but then again, the machine was extremely disgustingly filthy. Someone had oiled the machine by squirting every viewport and input slider full of thick oil, so all you could see of the numbers was a glistening moving oil film. As we all know, better too much oil than too little to protect a machine. It was disassembled completely, cleaned, reassembled, and lightly oiled again. It is a very pleasant machine to work with, as the machine is small, but not so small or light that it will shift easily on a table, and the action is very light. It's type C2-20, serial N° is "2828 A", and it was originally sold in Prague, in that wrapped up house where the pharmacy is now.
It really did say "Archimedes" ... it's just that the machine was used a bit.
Two small finger knobs missing on the carriage ... since repaired.
What has since also changed is the black base of the machine - I have traded the very nice decal of the Prague dealer for a much better Archimedes script.
Finally, a video of the machine in operation.
In the mean time, I’ve acquired an earlier machine of this kind, the one that debuted in 1913, with the larger stepped drums and thus larger setting slider travel, the input control register with rolls on the bottom, instead of disks at the top, and the bell worked into the carriage - model C1-16. THere are also differences in the safeties, carry mechanism and the input clearing. All the other things the C2 has, this has as well, including tens’ transfer in both counter and result. Things that are visually different are the knobs, which are all nickeled in this machine, except for the clearing knobs, which are black ebonite on the carriage, and a kind of coral pink on the input clearing. Most of the black japanning on the top plate and carriage (which was there, it can still be seen under the decimal marker rails) has worn off, and the machine now has a very nice brown patina, which will be left unpolished and just waxed slightly. The serial number, stamped into the carriage and scratched here and there onto the machine as well, is 2100.
This machine has spent some time in Spain, in Sevilla. It was taken there at the end of the 90’s by the (retiring) store manager of a furniture store in Zürich, Switzerland, where it had been used prior to the 1960s to do the books.
Then, a video of (both) machines in operation.
And finally, a comparison of what they look like inside:
