Dactyle Calculating Machine

Object Details

Chateau Frères of Paris

Description

This pinwheel, lever-set, non-printing calculating machine was made by the French firm of Chateau Frères, sold under the name Dactyle, and constructed on the design of the Swede W. T. Odhner. Odhner-style machines were first made in Russia (as Odhners), then in Germany (as Brunsvigas) and then in France (as the Dactyle, from about 1905).

In 1910, about a year after this machine was made, R. H. Marchant of San Francisco, the American agent for the Dactyle, decided to go into business himself, building a very similar machine. The Marchant Calculating Machine Company officially was incorporated in 1913, and made a wide range of calculating machines into the 1950s.

The machine, painted black, has nine levers toward the top for setting numbers. The operating crank is on the right side. In front is the carriage, with ten numeral wheels on the left for counting revolutions and 18 numeral wheels on the right for recording totals. The numeral wheels of the revolution counter are numbered from 0 to 9 in white and then from 8 down to 1 in red. The result wheels have the digits from 0 to 9 around the edge. The zeroing screws for the registers are at the two ends of the carriage.

A mark on the left front at the top reads: No. 5641.

This machine came to the Smithsonian from the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

Reference:

E. Martin, The Calculating Machines (Die Rechenmaschinen), trans. P.A. Kidwell and M.R. Williams, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992, p. 164.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Transfer from United States Naval Observatory

ca 1909

ID Number

2005.0174.02

accession number

2005.0174

catalog number

2005.0174.02

Object Name

calculating machine

Physical Description

iron (overall material)

steel (overall material)

brass (overall material)

wood (overall material)

Measurements

overall: 13.9 cm x 47.8 cm x 20.5 cm; 5 15/32 in x 18 13/16 in x 8 1/16 in

place made

France: Île-de-France, Paris

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Mathematics

Calculating Machines

Science & Mathematics

Mathematical Association of America Objects

National Museum of American History

subject

Mathematics

Record ID

nmah_1291209

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-98f0-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa