Millionaire (adding machine)
Millionaire is the name of a direct multiplying calculating machine that was developed and patented by Otto Steiger and built by the Hans W. Egli company in Zurich over a period of 40 years. In the years 1893 to around 1935, some wood, some sheet metal, probably 4655, according to other sources 5074 pieces. Another difference in construction was operation with an electric motor or a hand crank. The device was sold in 1904 for 1250 Swiss francssold and mainly used for technical calculations. The multiplication of two eight-digit numbers took only seven seconds, which was unimaginably fast at the time. According to self-promotion, the millionaire was the fastest computer in the world at the time. In 1903 the calculating machines were awarded a gold medal in Dresden.
The origin of the name millionaire for this revolutionary machine has never been clarified with certainty. In the export version, the name of the respective national language has been adapted.
description
The principle of his calculation is based on the work of the Russian mathematician Pafnuti Tschebyschow , who presented his ideas at the World Exhibition of 1878 in Paris, but did not patent them. Steiger's idea for an 20-digit Counter Memory was a movable carriage which the product after multiplying displays and a division will be entered before the divisor. The 10-digit multiplicand or divisor is entered on the sliders - on later keyboard models - above the slide, while the successive digits of the multiplier or quotient are entered with a push-button lever at the top left. A large adjusting button at the top right can be set beforehand to the digits to be added, multiplied, divided or subtracted.
In contrast to other electromechanical calculating machines that were manufactured up until the 1970s, the millionaire multiplied quickly. In conventional models, the sum of the digits entered first (multiplier) determined the number of revolutions of the arithmetic unit, which means, for example, that the calculation 123 × 99 required six revolutions, 99 × 123 but eighteen.
The calculator is built into a wooden or metal case with a hinged lid, metal handles on both sides and a metal lock on the front. The machine is 67 cm wide, 32 cm deep and 19 cm high, with a keyboard 72.5 cm wide and 44.4 cm deep. The weight in the metal version is 35 kg . Versions for 6 × 6, 8 × 8, 12 × 8 and 10 × 10 positions were offered.
The components of the machine are mainly made of brass . A table printed on paper in black and red with instructions and a layout plan is stuck on the inside of the lid. There is also a brass screw used for transport security and a cleaning brush.
The shift registers for setting the respective values were replaced by a keyboard in 1913, because the speed could be considerably improved with it. As early as 1911, a model variant was offered that set the arithmetic function in motion with an electric drive instead of a hand crank, which also accelerated handling.
With the patent specification DE 72870 at the Imperial Patent Office , Steiger submitted his invention on December 23, 1892, but the four techniques named therein were later not used for the construction of the millionaire calculating machines. The patent specification written in St. Gallen with the simple name “calculating machine” can nevertheless be seen as the basis for the development of the millionaire. In the following year five prototypes were produced in his workshop at Gotthardstrasse 39 in Munich. The techniques listed in the patent served as the basis for the conversion to (serial) machine production from 1898. In addition to Germany, a patent was also filed in Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, England, Canada and the USA.
Web links
- Michael Lewin, Ullrich Wolff: The development of the “millionaire” computing machine , in: Historische Bürowelt , No. 98, December 2014, pages 3–11
- Millionaire Calculator Machine (The Complete History) in The History of Computing (Engl.)
- Millionaire on Youtube.
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c d Gérald Saudan: Swiss Calculationg Maschines. HW Egli A.-G., A success story , Yens sur Morges 2017, ISBN 978-2-8399-2175-6
- ↑ Contemporary advertisement in the holdings of the Enter Museum
- ↑ a b c Millionaire Calculator Machine (The Complete History) , History Computer: The History of Computing
- ↑ Werbeanzeitge in Business: A Magazine for Office, Store and Factory , Volume 31, Business man's Publishing 1913, page 293
- ↑ Patent No. 72870, calculating machine , by Otto Steiger (St. Gallen)