What is this ancient Gardner number cruncher?
On an early morning perambulation, I spotted this gorgeous old Gardner number cruncher sitting outside of a local antique shop, and quickly snapped it with my iPhone.
Obviously, it's some sort of adding machine — there's total and subtotal buttons — but does anyone have any idea what type? What's so curious about it is not only the way each separate digit is repeated nine times and given its own row, but the fact that there's apparently no key for zero!
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Does it have a slot for a piece of paper? It could be a check protector.
It's not about rows, but about columns. Each column is a digit in a monetary amount, with two decimal places. Punch one number in each column and hit the '+' key. I assume you get a running total on paper, or on a mechanical readout of some kind. Looks like it will handle digits up to 9,999,999.99, which was quite a bit of money at the time. Now you'd need at least six more columns, at least if you were totally up what the US government spends.
This reminds me of when we found that delicious old Coke bottle that fell out of the sky... we knew they used to put a fizzy liquid in there, but... what made it stay?! The opening was too small for a pop-top spout; in fact, there was no top to it at all --- it was more like an oddly-shaped glass, like the kind they used to sell with jelly inside. (Jelly, being gelled, stays put, so that question was answered.) It was a curious day, indeed!
(Hint: it's an adding machine, not a calculator. Each column represents one digit out of a 9-digit number.)
Airship: how would that work without any zero keys?
I believe Airship is right on this one - and any column that doesn't have a button depressed is considered to be zero. So the # currently entered on the machine appears to be 9,090,044.22
I imagine when you hit + or -, all of the buttons spring back up, resetting the entered number to zero, and if push down a number accidentally, you can pull that button back up to correct your mistake.
Yes, enter the digits by column and press the plus or minus lever to add or subtract the number from the running total. For zero I suspect you don't press a key in that column.
Was there a printer on the back? This site describes "blind" machines where the operator can't see the paper, and "visible" machines where the operator can see the paper while they're working.
I'll check again tomorrow, but I didn't actually see a paper slot. I wasn't looking closely though.
Why no zeros? Because to enter zero you didn't punch _any_ button.
Output may have been strictly by dial displays rather than printing a record... or, if there was a printed output, it may have been on the back.
I'm sure that somewhere on the web you could find a description of the cam mechanism that makes this work... Basically, it's a simple advance-and-carry mechanism for each column.
Zero = no key pressed. My dad used to have an "adding machine" like this. It was great fun to take apart... :-)
This is called a "Comptometer." Skilled users could enter numbers using up to ten fingers without looking. A good operator could add columns of numbers as fast as a skilled person using a ten-digit electronic calculator. They could also multiply and subtract, though not as fast. I worked in an accounting department in the late '70s where most of the people used these. The noise level was remarkable. Alas, another skill now obsolete.
I had one of these to play with when I was a kid. It had an additional feature to support multiplication: a crank that would shift the accumulator containing the total wheels at the top left and right. So to multiply ABCD by EFG you'd punch in ABCD (and others are correct that 0 is "no key pressed"). You hit the 'hold' switch so the keys would not spring back immediately, and then hit + G times. Shift left, hit + F times, shift left once more, hit + E times, release the keys.
Voila, the total reads out on the mechanical accumulator.
Getting Ubuntu to run nicely is as nothing if you don't understand the underlying "computing" principles.
I love it when geeks discover old geek tech. I used a big old adding machine from the sixties on my desk at work instead of calc because it drove my cubicle neighbor, who i didn't like, nuts! Loud!
I imagine [...] if you push down a number accidentally, you can pull that button back up to correct your mistake.
More likely somewhere there is a clear button you can press so all the buttons pop back up without actually adding or subtracting anything.
My grandfather had one of these and I used to play with it as a kid. When you pressed any of the keys that made all the digits pop back up, it made the best noise ever.
Indeed an adding machine. The primary function was the large "+" bar on the right. Less frequently used functions were smaller keys.
National Cash Register (NCR) made cash registers with this kind of keypad until at least the late 1970's. (I drove one of those NCR Class 5 cash registers for a few years in the '70's.)
Previous commenters are correct; no key depressed is the "zero" for that column.
In actual practice this is an extremely fast and ergonomic keypad. You rest the beefy part of your right palm on the "+" bar and your fingers rest on the individual buttons. With a little practice you can enter any four digit number in a single action -- four fingers depress four buttons simultaneously. Then you just "roll" your hand to the right to depress the "+" bar.
I don't know if anybody has measured throughput on these, but in my experience, it was actually faster to enter large columns of values (check out a grocery order) on these machines than it was after we switched to the "standard" ten key keyboards.
I suspect that these are indeed faster (like when the morse code keyers compete with the text messagers). However, it takes some training, and the mechanism itself is crazy complicated.
Just looking at the picture, I don't think I would like to use this particular machine. The keys seem to be more widely spaced than on the NCR Class 5's we used to use and the large gap between the numeric keypad and the plus bar would be a hassle. (In modern lingo, it looks like Gardner got the ergonomics wrong.)
BTW it's not as cumbersome as it sounds. Multiplying two five-digit numbers is not appreciably faster on a standard pocket calculator now than on this beast with a little practice....
Would a image from any other phone look the same?
Not that uncommon. I just took a cash register out of service that did not have zeroes. It's now sitting in my office next to a bakelite record player, Paymaster check protector, Royal manual typewriter. That's just one counter top. You should see my shelves.
I am so retro, I could just puke.
Anonymous at 8:12 am is completely correct regarding cash registers. My mum (mom) worked in an Esso (Exxon) petrol (gas) station when I was young, around '81 or so, and the unused register lurking right at the back of the store was exactly like this. I fell in love the moment I had a go on it; I'd seen them whenever I was taken shopping, but getting my tiny geek-in-the-making fingers on it was a halcyon moment.
Seriously, if I saw this in a shop my credit card would be feeling the strain. Awesome.
#15 Well... entering the problem was as fast if not faster on these machines. But if you set one to do a large, multidigit multiplication or division problem, it could take a while to churn out an answer.
Some companies also made "half keyboard" models where to enter a 7 in for a digit you'd press the 5 and 2 buttons in that column.
It looks like the mechanism that holds the roll of paper is missing. I have a similar machine and the paper holder is on the back and can be easily detached.
Previous commenters who said that previous commenters who said that zero is represented by no key being pressed were correct are correct.
But seriously, I smell the next Apple keyboard redesign. Apple led the charge to get rid of the floppy, the modem, and now--the zero. (They'll probably put another version of the command/control/option/alt/fn key in its place. How about a Sudo key? "To increase the kerning of your system font, press Shift-Option-Sudo-J.")
Of course, you'll be able to buy a USB zero key from Apple for $59.
My grandfather ran a currency exchange back in the 50's through the 80's. He had many machines very similar to this. Some of them did not, in fact, have running paper totals. There were simple mechanical drums which would spin and display the total (in black for positive, red for negative, natch). At each entry, the operator was expected to record the totals by hand in a ledger. Truly, this was a time when a 'data entry' was a career-worthy skill.
When I was in High School (I graduated in 1974) I had a part time job in a dry cleaners. At the end of the day someone -- sometimes me -- would use a machine very similar to this to add up the day's tickets. This one looks a lot older; I don't remember ours having feet. It did have a printout, though, which you'd tear off and put in an envelope with the money after you'd counted it. I'm getting a little misty, here.
What is it?
Simple.
It is a machine designed to train humans (or chimps) to push buttons.
It may have been as fast to enter numbers, but this one is missing the crank, and pulling the crank would slow you down. The Gardener machine we used to have when I was a kid (found in the attic of the business where my mom used to work) had a handle on the right side. To see them in use, rent the movie "The Meaning of Life" and watch the Crimson Permanent Assurance short. The accountants sum their figures by pulling the cranks to the beat of the coxswain's drum.
With no crank it's possible this one was a wind-up or electric model.
The one we had also had a printer and a two-color tape (printing negative numbers in red ink.) The numbers were individual spring-loaded typebars held in individual digit-by-digit magazines. To print a '9' in the ones column, the magazine would extend to the top of its throw, and once all digits were in place a horizontal hammer would strike them all.
I've got a comptometer these I've been slowly fixing up. Jams easily, but at least it works now.
It's easier to understand when looking at a comptometer that displays the values of the accumulator wheels. There's a return to zero key or lever which resets the machine to zero.
ABCDEF
000000
Adding 120 to that would be a matter of hitting 1 on column D and 2 on column E.
000120
Adding 900 to that would involve just pressing the 9 key in the D. 1+9 in the D column would reset the column to zero, and add 1 to the C column.
001020
There is no need to type the zeros at all as if you want to add say, 100000 to that figure, all you'd have to do is press the 1 key in the A column.
101020
----
Toward the end of their use apparently manufacturers just went from 1-5 on each column, as practised users didn't waste their time lifting their hand up to the 6-9 rows. It was faster for them to press 3 twice than it was to lift their hand up to hit the 6 key.
These were still in use when I worked for Banker's Trust (now part of Deutche Bank after losing their shirts betting on derivatives in the '90s) in the Early '80s, alongside Lineprinters, TTYs, Glass TTY Dumb Terminals and giant IBM mainframes.
Yup - it's a comptometer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptometer
Hi,
When I was a kid, my family ran a small town newspaper - election nights, everyone helped forward precinct results from the courthouse to the paper office, enter them on the big board, and tabulate the result running totals.
We used big old adding machines, with a crank on the right side, so if the power was off you could keep on computing.
It was a lot of fun, being able to help in a hectic all-night situation like that. I'll never forget the sound of that big adding machine adding up the vote totals.
JR
Why would you need to add zero?