Adding Machines (Click Thumbnail)

Pocket Adder - Handheld money adder. Manufacturer unknown. Small plastic adding device with four push buttons and no reset. For counting and adding one's, tens, hunderds and thousands, equivalents to cents, dimes, dollars and 10 dollars. No subtraction. Maximum count: 9999. Weight: 35 gr. Dimensions: 9,5 x 4,5 x 2 cm.

Super Add-a-Matic - Handheld money adder. Manufacturer unknown. Simple little plastic machine with three push buttons for counting ones, tens and hundreds and adding small numbers < 1999. Adding 1 to 999 does not yield a 0 in display nr. 3 but a 10 … 19. So counting and adding beyond 999 can go on until 1999.  No reset to zero. Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 2 cm.

Schumm Adding Box - Handheld counter/adder. Firma Schumm, Germany. Larger than the Super Add-a-Matic above but not able to count 10.000 after adding 1 to 9999. Also no reset button or lever and no subtraction. Smooth running mechanism. Gentle pushes suffice to add and count. Weight: 41 gr. Dimensions: 9,4 x 9,2 x 2,1 cm.

PENOL Adder/counter Regnemakine - Chr. Olsen A/S København, 1959. Handheld digital counter, adder and subtractor. The machine is operated by pushkeys on the top. The handle far right on top is for subtraction. The handle below is for resetting the mchanism to zeroes.

Adding Machine Dial-A-Matic - Sterling Plastics, New Jersey, USA, 1950. Simple plastic adder.  There are versions with 4, 5 and 6 rotary dials. Including a plastic stylus to dial (input) numbers to the right (adding) and to the left (subtracting). No reset. Click thumbnail to the right for more pictures.

Lightning Adder -  Lightning Adding Machine Co. Inc., USA, 1947. Obviously inspired by the Pascaline: Pascal's early mechanical calculator. Simple rotating adding machine in a bakelite stand for quick additions and subtractions and resetting all digits back to zero with one move. Input by dialing the digit wheels clockwise (add) or counterclockwise (subtract). Reset: pull out the slider at the far left of the machine.

Addometer - Reliable Typewriter and Adding Machine Co. 1920. Similar in operation to the original Pascaline. It features automatic tens carry addition and subtraction but adding 1 to 999999 requires much effort since the user must rotate 7 digits at once. To add, the larger inner digits are used and the wheels are turned clockwise. To subtract, the smaller outer digits are used and the wheels are turned counter-clockwise.

Calcul O Matic or Easy Adder - Adding Machine for children, Kohner, Type 370. French. Educational toy to teach young children to add and to subtract by dialing digits like on an old fashioned telephone. The plastic machine had a reset button and a small lever to switch between the two operating modes: add and subtract. On the backside a detailed user manual in French. Instructions are printed on the backside of the machine.