James Dalton
James Lewis Dalton (1866-1926) was a successful businessman and amateur mechanic from Poplar Bluff, Butler county, Mo. He was the owner of the largest department store in the Midwest, a member of the Missouri legislature, and District Deputy Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge of the State of Missouri. How..Read More
Mathias Bäuerle
In 1903, the German clock manufacturer from Schwarzwäld—Bäuerle Uhrenfabrik (Clock Factory), Sankt Georgen, launched his adding machine Peerless, which soon became quite popular and won gold medals at exhibitions in St. Louis (World’s Fair of 1904), Liège (1905), and Milan (1906). The founder of the company—Mathias Bäuerle (1838-1916) from St...Read More
Oliver Johantgen
Victor Adding Machine Co. was established in Chicago on 8 Mar 1918, by three men: Oliver David Johantgen (1874-1932), an engineer with a long (since 1896) experience in the field of mechanical calculators and a holder of numerous patents in the USA, France, and Germany, who was the chief designer..Read More
Charles Wales
Charles Wales, a genius of mechanical motion and a native of Maryland, who lived in the early 1900s in Detroit, filled his first patent application for an adding machine in September 1902, and when in 1903 the US patent No. 745539 was granted, he decided to establish a company to..Read More
Arthur Postans
The British engineer Arthur James Postans (1867-1940) from South Kensington, London, applied for a patent for an adding machine in 1902 in several countries. The British (patent No. 190224868), French (pat. №339441), and German (DE169346) patents were granted in 1904. The next year Postans obtained a US patent also (US..Read More
Emory Ensign
Ensign Electric Calculating Machine is a highly developed, electrically driven adding and subtracting machine, particularly suited for multiplication (by repeated addition) and semi-automatic division (subtraction and division are done by complementary addition). It was devised and patented by the young engineer from Illinois Emory Seymour Ensign (1878-1944), at the beginning..Read More
John Ambrose Fleming
In the first half of the 20th century, vacuum tubes allowed the development of radio broadcasting, long-distance telephone service, television, and the first electronic digital computers, which were the largest vacuum-tube systems ever built. So, who and when invented the vacuum tube? Let’s meet the English scientist John Ambrose Fleming...Read More
Christel Hamann
The German engineer Christel Hamann (1870-1948) is an outstanding figure in the world of mechanical calculators. He is a holder of numerous patents (in the USA, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and Great Britain) in this area and the constructor of countless mechanisms and calculators, let’s mention only Gauss, Berolina, Mercedes..Read More
Adix of Josef Pallweber and Adolf Bordt
On 1 October 1903, the company Adix Company Pallweber & Bordt of Mannheim, Germany, was entered into the commercial register, for the production of calculating machines. The sole shareholders were Josef Pallweber (1858-1921), a famous Austrian/German engineer, equipment manufacturer, and inventor, and Adolf Bordt (1875-1940), an owner of a business..Read More
Alois Salcher
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Austrian engineer and businessman from Innsbruck Alois Salcher devised and put into production a very interesting calculating machine. Despite its original construction, the machine was never much of a success, and it is rare today. The known serial numbers indicate a production..Read More