The arithmometer () was the first digital mechanical calculator strong and reliable enough to be used daily in an office environment. This calculator could add and subtract two numbers directly and perform long multiplications and divisions effectively by using a movable accumulator for the result.
Patented in France by Thomas de Colmar in 1820 and manufactured from 1851 to 1915, it became the first commercially successful mechanical calculator.Chase G.C.: History of Mechanical Computing Machinery, Vol. 2, Number 3, July 1980, page 204, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
https://archive.org/details/ChaseMechanicalComputingMachinery Its sturdy design gave it a strong reputation for reliability and accuracyIfrah G., The Universal History of Numbers, vol 3, page 127, The Harvill Press, 2000 and made it a key player in the move from to calculating machines that took place during the second half of the 19th century.Grier D.A.: When Computers Were Human, page 93, Princeton University Press, 2005
Its production debut of 1851 launched the mechanical calculator industry which ultimately built millions of machines well into the 1970s. For forty years, from 1851 to 1890,The Comptometer became the first competing design in production from 1887 but only one hundred machines were sold by 1890. the arithmometer was the only type of mechanical calculator in commercial production, and it was sold all over the world. During the later part of that period two companies started manufacturing clones of the arithmometer: Burkhardt, from Germany, which started in 1878, and Layton of the UK, which started in 1883. Eventually about twenty European companies built clones of the arithmometer until the beginning of World War I.
Evolution
Searching for a solution: 1820–1851
The arithmometers of this period were four-operation machines; a multiplicand inscribed on the input sliders could be multiplied by a single-digit multiplier by simply pulling on a ribbon (quickly replaced by a crank handle). It was a complicated designScientific American, Volume 5, Number 1, page 92, September 22, 1849 and very few machines were built. Additionally, no machines were built between 1822 and 1844.
This hiatus of 22 years coincides almost exactly with the period of time during which the British government financed the design of Charles Babbage's difference engine, which on paper was far more sophisticated than the arithmometer, but wasn’t finished at this time.The British Parliament financed this project from 1822 to 1842 (James Essinger, Jacquard's Web, pages 77 & 102–106, Oxford University Press, 2004). It is during this development that, from 1834 to 1836, Babbage conceived his analytical engine, a mechanical computer with Jacquard's cards to provide program and data to his machine, with a control/computing unit (mill), some memory (store) and various printers.
In 1844 Thomas reintroduced his machine at the Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie Française in the newly created category of Miscellaneous measuring tools, counters and calculating machines but only received an honorable mention.(fr) Exposition des produits de l'industrie française en 1844. Rapport du jury central, Tome 2, page 504 Le Conservatoire numérique des Arts & Métiers
He restarted the development of the machine in 1848. In 1850, as part of a marketing effort, Thomas built a few machines with exquisite Boulle marquetry boxes that he gave to the crown heads of Europe. He filed two patents and two patents of addition in between 1849 and 1851.
Creating an
The multiplier was removed, making the arithmometer a simple adding machine, but thanks to its moving carriage used as an indexed accumulator, it still allowed for easy multiplication and division under operator control. It was introduced in the UK at The Great Exhibition of 1851(fr) Exposition universelle de 1851, Tome III, seconde partie, Xe Jury, pp. 3–9 Even though there is no actual picture of the machine, the descriptions of the operations of multiplication and division correspond to the simplified machine (repeated operations at each indexes). In the introduction the writer mentions the old multiplying machines. and true industrial production started in 1851.
Each machine was given a serial number and user manuals were printed. At first, Thomas differentiated machines by capacity and therefore gave the same serial number to machines of different capacities. This was corrected in 1863 and each machine was given its own unique serial number starting with a serial number of 500.This can be seen in this list of serial numbers www.arithmometre.org, accessed on 15 August 2012
The constant use of some of the machines exposed some minor design flaws like a weak carry mechanism, which was given an adequate fix in 1856, and an over rotation of the Leibniz wheels when the crank handle is turned too fast, which was corrected by the addition of a Maltese cross.(fr) Bulletin de la société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, 78e année. Troisième série, tome VI. Août 1879 pages 403–404 Le Conservatoire numérique des Arts & Métiers
A patent covering all these innovations was filed in 1865. Because of its reliability and accuracy, government offices, banks, observatories and businesses all over the world started using the arithmometer in their day-to-day operations. Around 1872, for the first time in calculating machine history, the total number of machines manufactured passed the 1,000 mark. In 1880, twenty years before the competition, a mechanism to move the carriage automatically was patented and installed on some machines,(fr) Bulletin de la société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, 78e année. Troisième série, tome VI. Août 1879 page 405 Le Conservatoire numérique des Arts & Métiers but was not integrated into the production models.
The golden age: 1887–1915
Under the management of Louis Payen, and later his widow, many improvements were introduced, such as an incline mechanism, a removable top, cursors and result windows that were easier to read, and a faster re-zeroing mechanism.
Many clone makers appeared during that period, mostly in Germany and the United Kingdom. Eventually twenty independent companies manufactured clones of the arithmometer. All these companies were based in Europe but sold their machines worldwide.
The fundamental design stayed the same; and after 50 years at the top, the arithmometer lost its supremacy in the mechanical calculator industry. While in 1890 the arithmometer was still the most-produced mechanical calculator in the world, by 1900 four machines, the comptometer and Burroughs' adding machineCortada, J: Before The Computer, page 34, Princeton University Press, 1993 in the USA, Odhner's ArithmometerTrogemann G.: Computing in Russia, page 43, GWV-Vieweg, 2001, in Russia, and Brunsviga in Germany had passed it in volume of machines manufactured.
Production of the arithmometer stopped in 1915, during World War I.
Alphonse Darras, who had bought the business in 1915, was unable to restart its manufacturing after the war because of the many shortages and a lack of qualified workers.(fr) La revue du bureau, p 340, 1921
Legacy Because it was the first mass-marketed and the first widely copied calculator, its design marks the starting point of the mechanical calculator industry. Its user interface was used throughout during the 120 years that the mechanical calculator industry lasted. First with its clones and then with the Odhner arithmometer and its clones, which was a redesign of the arithmometerTrogemann G.: Computing in Russia, page 41, GWV-Vieweg, 2001, with a pinwheel system but with exactly the same user interface.
Over the years, the term arithmometer or parts of it have been used on many different machines like Odhner's arithmometer, the Arithmaurel or the Comptometer, and on some portable pocket calculating machines of the 1940s. Burroughs corporation started as the American Arithmometer Company in 1886. By the 1920s it had become a generic name for any machine based on its design with about twenty independent companies manufacturing Thomas' clones like Burkhardt, Layton, Saxonia, Gräber, Peerless, Mercedes-Euklid, XxX, Archimedes, etc.
History
Design Thomas started to work on his machine in 1818 while serving in the French Army where he had to do a great deal of calculations. He made use of principles from previous mechanical calculators like the stepped reckoner of Leibniz and Pascal's calculator. He patented it on November 18, 1820.
This machine implemented a true multiplication where, by just pulling on a ribbon, the multiplicand entered on the input sliders was multiplied by a one-digit multiplier number and it used the method for subtracting. Both of these features would be dropped in later designs.
First machine The first machine was built by Devrine, a Parisian clockmaker, and took him a year to build. But, in order to make it work, he had to modify the patented design quite substantially. The Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale was given this machine for review and it issued a very positive report on December 26, 1821.Bulletin de la société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale, Feb 1822, page 36, scanned by www.arithmometre.org The only known prototype of this time is the on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Production
Manufacturing started in 1851 and ended around 1915. There were about machines built during this sixty-year period; 40% of the production was sold in France and the rest was exported.Martin, E: The Calculating Machines, page 54, Charles Babbage Institute, 1992
The manufacturing was managed by: Thomas de Colmar himself until his death in 1870, then by his son Thomas de Bojano until 1881 and by his grandson Mr. de Rancy until 1887. Misters Devrine (1820), Piolaine (1848), Hoart (1850) and Louis Payen (around 1875) were the engineers responsible for building the machines. All the machines manufactured during this time have the logo .
Louis Payen who bought the business in 1887 until his death in 1902; all these machines have the logo .
Veuve (widow) L. Payen who took over the business at her husband's death and sold it in 1915 with the logos , and VLP. Alphonse Darras built most of these machines.
Alphonse Darras who bought the business in 1915 and manufactured the last machines. He added a logo made of the letters A and D interlaced and went back to the logo.
During the early part of manufacturing, Thomas differentiated machines by capacity and therefore gave the same serial number to machines of different capacities. He corrected this in 1863, giving every machine its own unique serial number starting with a serial number of 500. This is why there isn't any machine with a serial number in between 200 and 500.
From 1863 to 1907 the serial numbers were consecutive (from 500 to 4000) then, after patenting a rapid zeroing mechanism in 1907, Veuve L. Payen started a new numbering scheme at 500 (the number of arithmometers she had built with the old scheme) and was at serial number 1700 when she sold the business to Alphonse Darras in 1915. Alphonse Darras went back to the old serial numbers (while adding approximately the number of machines made by Veuve L. Payen) and restarted at 5500.
Ease of use and speed An article published in January 1857 in The Gentleman's Magazine best describes it:
Models
The various models had capacities of 10, 12, 16 and 20 digits which gave results ranging from to . Only two machines were built outside this range:
The first prototype (the 1822 machine) had a capacity of 6 digits even though the machine described in the 1820 patent is an 8 digits machine.