This is a collection of electronic resources (including selected links to other relevant websites) which form part of the background to the collected objects and associated analysis.
Early books
(Clicking on the link will download the relevant book.)
- John Napier, Rabdologiae seu numerationis per vigula, 1628 (first published 1617).
- Blaise Pascal, “Lettre dédicatoire à Monseigneur le Chancelier sur le sujet de la machine nouvellement inventée par le Sieur B.P. pour faire toutes sortes d’opérations d’arithmétique, par un mouvement reglé, sans plume ny jettons avec un avis nécessaire à ceux qui auront curiosité de voir ladite machine, & de s’en servir”, 1645.
- Jacob Leupold, Theatrum Arithmetico-Geometricum das ist: Schau-Platz der Rechen- und Mess-Kunst. . . . Christoph Zunkel, Leipzig, 1774 (first edition 1727). The best illustrated book on calculation and measurement published during the eighteenth century.
- Cornell University Library Historical Math Monographs. A wonderful collection of early mathematics books generally able to be read on line.
- Bibnum (Centre de ressources et d’information multimedia pour l’enseignement supérieur) Classic scientific articles from before 1940 relevant to calculation, mathematics, and information science. Includes original documents from Pascale and Leibniz.
Key websites
Survey websites
- Rechnerlexicon The leading and most comprehensive survey site for calculator specialists and collectors with information about almost every known mechanical calculator and a database of more than 23750 patents.
- Rechenmaschinen-Illustrated: The most comprehensive listing of details about early calculating machines on the web. Based around the classic study Ernst Martin, Die Rechenmaschinen, 1925, and translated into English as Ernst Martin, “The Calculating Machines”, MIT Press and The Charles Babbage Institute, USA, “History of Computing” series, 1992.
- The late Herbert Schneemann’s web site: A wonderful private collection of calculators belonging to and documented by the late Herbert Schneemann who contributed so much to the construction of Rechenmaschinen-Illustrated.
- Histoire de l’Informatique Wide-ranging gallery of calculators and associated information. [in French]
- History of Computers hardware, software, internet… A very beautifully developed historical site by Georgi Dalakov in part structured under historical themes and with in that, leading inventors and their inventions, with many pictures of wonderful rare calculator antiques and related ephemerae.
- Büromaschinen Lexikon Published by Goeller-Verlag the annual office machines dictionary provided a comprehensive illustrated overview of common office equipment for the respective years. This site provides collectors with the information on calculators from that website.[in German]
- John Wolff’s Web Museum Calculating Machines A wonderfully detailed site by an expert collector with great mechanical insight into the workings of the extensive set of calculators listed.
- Swedish Typewriters Site - listing of antique office calculators From the home page select the “The Collection” in the navigation bar on the left, and then scroll down to the RÄKNEMASKINER / CALCULATORS section.
- Mathematisches Maschinenemuseum Good historical summaries and a nice set of videos of machines in action.
- Beiträge zur Geschichte des mechanischen Rechnens: Contributions to the History of Mechanical Calculation Good list of publications, books and historical articles dealing in particular with the history and internal workings of calculating machines.
- Online documents A broad listing of useful links to documents covering the history of calculators.
- Michel Bardel’s list Tentative list of all existing mechanical machines since 1820, together with FAQs and serial numbers. An invaluable reference source.
- History of Computer Antiquity
- Mechanische Rechenhilfsmittel Mechanical Calculating Devices by Wolf G. Blümich (in German.)
- Mathematics site by Reiner Hoffmann in German.
- Opticalia Museum - museum menu is working, but the catalogue menu was still under construction in May 2012.
- Índice de las Máquinas de Calcular a comprehensive survey site by Josep Balsach Peig, in Spanish.
- François Babillot’s calculator website
- Mechanische Rechenhilfsmittel und -maschinen by Detlef Zerfowski including an extensive list of patents and also calculator sites
- Detlef Zerfowski - Internet pages about mechanical calculating devices and machines in German and English, and with a new book Our World-wide Knowledge on Calculating Machines, Slide Rules and Calculating Tools. An Approach for a Comprehensive Overview of the Knowledge from Past until Present.
- ANCMECA Library - quite a comprehensive collection of digitised documents and references from the history of calculation technology
- https://archive.org - allows an Internet Archive search for manuals and other digitised documents relevant to the history of calculation technology. Searches may be made on items such as Monroe calculator; comptometer; as well as Le Calcul Mecanique, Catalogue Du Musee Section A Instruments Et Machines A Calculer - Conservatoire National Des Arts Et Metiers; Rechnen mit Maschinen - de Beauclair; Computing Mechanisms and Linkages - Antonin Svoboda; and much else.
Manuals and Instructions
- Calculator Manuals from Rechenwerkzeug.de
- Calcolatoria downloads
- Mathematical Instruments Catalogues and Brochures
- Prehistoria de la Informatica Office Collectibles
- Miscellaneous Manuals Pay site, but if you can’t get these elsewhere…
- Office Machines America Pay site.
- Collection of Kees Nagtegaal useful set of manuals for slide rules and the more common calculators.
- Keuffel & Esser Slide Rule Manuals and Catalogues site by Clark McCoy.
Specialist websites
- Valéry Monnier’s extraordinary and expert website on the Thomas de Colmar Arithmometer
- Arithmetic Machines|Arithmetical Machines & Instruments / 19th century Valéry Monnier’s other set of images and details of some of the most rare and precious calculating machines of the C19 (in French and English).
- Electromechanical calculating machines from the 1960’s includes extensive lists of other relevant links and books.
- Original documents on the History of Calculators
- Le cabinet de curiosités d’Yves Serra A nice presentation of information on early calculators (with particular attention to those of Pascale and Leibnitz).
- Comptometer Website Very authoritative website on the Felt & Tarrant Comptometer.
- Michael Hancock’s Burroughs Calculator Website Comprehensive survey of Burroughs calculators including listings by serial number and age, and much more.
- The Calculator Reference Comprehensive coverage of Curta, Hewlett Packard, and Texas Instrument calculators. Includes links to other sites and manuals.
- The Museum of HP Caclulators Comprehensive information on HP calculators including serial number lists.
- HP Computer Museum Another set of comprehensive information on HP calculators including free downloads of reference material.
- William Ohdner’s site commemorating the Ohdner calculator
- Facit Page by James Redin including a comprehensive list of models of the Facit calculators.
- History of the Facit Calculator by Christofer Nöring
- Museum of Soviet Calculators
- Soviet Calculators Collection
- The mechanisms of Tchebyshev devoted to preserving the full set of inventions of the great Russian mathematician Pafnuty Lvovich Tchebyshev (1821–1894).
- Office Machines Americana including a useful set of manuals.
- Museum of Pocket Calculating Devices mainly focussing on electronic pocket calculators.
- John Huey’s Picasawebalbum with illustrations of a wide range of Addiator Troncet calculators.
- Gerald Saudan from Switzerland’s MADAS specialist site.
Gunter Scales & Sectors
- Gunter Works All about Gunter Scales and Sectors and how to use them (mostly in German but also in part in English)
Slide Rules
- International Slide Rule Museum
- Herman van Herwijnen’s Slide Rule Catalogue “LITE”
- Rechenscheiber im Online-Museum
- Eric’s Slide Rule Site
- Greg’s slide rules
- Robert Manley’s Slide Rule Site
- Anhang 2.1: Bedienungs- und Serviceanleitungen für Tabellen, Rechenschieber, -scheiben, -walzen und -skalen Instructions for many slide rules.
- The Oughtred Society
- Scanned back issues of the Oughtred Society Journal and other publications An essential reference site for enthusiasts. Access to the last five years publications requires a password and username to be provided by the Society.
- Dutch Circle for Historical Calculating Instruments
- Museum of HP Calculators History of Slide Rules
- The Death of the Slide Rule by James Redin
- Collection of Giovanni Breda
- International Slide Rule Museum A survey site focussing primarily on slide rules with a wealth of links and other material including other related sites, and manuals and related material. See also its helpful and comprehensive links page.
- Otis King’s Patent Calculator Specialist site focussing on the Otis King cylindrical sliderule.
- linealis.org “Un site consacré aux instruments du calcul manuel tels que les règles et cercles à calcul, les curseurs, abaques, machines à calculer tenant dans la main, planimètres et intégrateurs.”
- The Slide Rule Universe by Sphere research corporation.
- ARC Regulas de Calculo Foro
Measuring & Drawing Instruments
- CollectingMe.com Some nice examples of various antique measuring instruments.
- Peter Giringhelli’s collection of measuring and drawing instruments, and rules
- Geometricum Markus Geissbuehler presents a systematic presentation of scientific instruments, in particular astronomical, drawing instruments and surveying instruments from Roman to C19
- Mathematical Instruments: A Private Collection
Museums
- The Arithmeum, Bonn A specialist museum focussed on the history of calculation, housing many rare and precious antique calculators.
- Science Museum (UK)
- The Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum Claims to be the world’s biggest computer museum, situated in Paderborn, Germany.
- The Smithsonian Museums have now placed many of the antique calculators in their collections on view. They may be identified by searching for “calculator” in the search box.
- List of museums at www.arithmometer.org
- Stuttgart Landesmuseum
- Mathematische Maschinenmuseum. Collection of the Hochschule in Ludwigsburg (Germany)
- University of Greifswald An extensive mechanical calculator collection.
- Computer Museum Aachen Primarily electronic computers.
- The Museum of Modern Human Progress (The American Computer Museum)
- Stichting Computermuseum (Netherlands)
- The Computer History Museum (Mountain View, California, USA)
- Insterstices Machines à calculer l’association pour le musée international du calcul, de l’informatique et de l’automatique de Valbonne Sophia Antipolis (Amisa ) présente quelques pièces de son patrimoine.
Other Useful Sites
- History of Mechanical Calculators Part of James Redin’s Xnumber World of Personal Caculators site. Some useful links to documents (also listed in other sites.) Also a nice listing of some of the better known calculator collectors.
- Vintage Calculators Website A significant number of photos of the more widely collected old mechanical calculators, together with a survey of electrical and electronic machines.
- Recommended links by Chris from Calclist
- rechenwerkzeug Reinhard Atzbach’s site with a very nice range of antique calculators generally in very nice condition, and an extensive listing of relevant literature (in German).
- The History of Computing Project A collaborative history of computing published by The History of Computing Foundation; 4021 VD 14; The Netherlands, Principal Editor Cornelis Robat.
- Calculatrice
- The Early Office Museum
- Aus der Rechenmaschinen-Werkstatt von D. Bölter
- Retrocalculators.com
- Mein Rechner tut’s auch ohne Strom…
- Jan Meyer’s Geschichte der Rechenhilfsmittel
- Schneemanns web page
- Wim Hasselo’s comprehensive website
- Cris Vandevel’s Antique Mechanical Four-species Calculators
- François Babillot’s Database of Antique Calculators
- General calculator list from the “Museum of HP Calculators”
- Yesterday’s Office includes a forum for collectors of office antiques.
- WikiCollecting article on collecting calculators
- Giovanni Breda’s list of calculator collector and calculator & slide rule websites
- Philip A Cannon II’s site with a great deal of information cataloguing makers of instruments.
- Mid-West Tool Collectors Association List of US antique tool dealers (not particularly calculators, but some relevant tools are accessible).
- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian-M. Hamann’s calculator site
- Mark Glusker’s calculator site
- Keith Smillie’s From Abacus to Silicon Chip
- Thiago Bouzan’s Pascaline replicas constructed from Leggo - latest model, or prior model
Associations of Calculator Collectors, Collectors Lists, and Collector Mail Lists
- CALCLIST a “must” subscription for the serious calculator collector.
- Old Calculator Forum e-mail list website mainly but not exclusively focussing on electric and early electronic calculators.
- Old Electronic Calculators Yahoo group primarily for old electronic calculators.
- Yahoo slide-rule group. It is very active.
- ANCMECA - machine à écrire mécanique et à la machine à calculer mécanique in multiple languages.
- IFHB Internationales Forum Historische Bürowelt e.V. with also an extensive set of links to other relevant sites.
- Webring of Calculator Collecting simply a web-ring for those interested.
- Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical Graphics, and Data Visualization a nice timeline with links.
- Mechanical Calculator Collectors in the Net, list by James Redin
Personal Collections
- List of famous calculator collectors
- Another list of collectors
- Collection of Walter Szrek
- Collection of Jay M. Goldman
- Nathan’s Possibly Interesting History of Computing Website
- Collection of Herman Price
- Collection of Kees Nagtegaal
- Collection of Christophe Mery
- Collection of Nico Baaijens
- Topeka Computing Museum - “Ed’s 948 Collection”
- Collection of Peter Kernwein
- “Old Bits” collection of Frank Salomon
- Calculator Collection of Anthon (Tony) Thimet
- Fred’s Mechanical Calculators Calculator collection of Fred Haegen
- Prehistoriadelainformatica High quality collection of office machines by Eduardo Guillem, in Spanish. Includes a fine selection of antique mechanical calculators and a number of manuals.
- Collection of Andreas Tabak
- Museo didattico del Computer in Itallian
- Telmachineverzameling Bob de Groot in Dutch
- sikkepit Collection of Jantine Bloemhof (in Dutch) primarily aimed at demonstrating to school children different ways of doing calculations before the advent of electronic calculators.
- things-that-count.net - well you must know about that, or you wouldn’t be here…
Online stores
Some useful stores of antique scientific instruments. (Calculant has no financial connection with any of these stores and cannot vouch for anything advertised. Caveat Emptor applies!)
- Fleaglass - a store front for a range of private sellers and dealers for various categories of antique scientific instruments including those for calculation
- The Gemmary Antique Scientific Instruments and Old & Rare Books - both a dealer and store front for sales on consignment. Pricing tends to conform to the high quality of both the objects and the great care and expertise with which they are described, questions answered, and orders executed. The proprietor, Dr RC Blankenhorn is a well known expert in this field.
- ebay US, ebay Australia, ebay Germany, ebay Austria, ebay France, ebay UK, ebay Italy and in general ebay around the world is probably the prime location for purchase of the more common (and some less common) antique calculation devices and books. Prices are very variable and if you are lucky ridiculously cheap (or conversely absurdly expensive). You are absolutely on your own in judging the merit of the items on offer. Dates and descriptions are often on a scale of misleading to fanciful. Things advertised as “rare” are more often than not not.
- Gilai Collectibles.
- Teseract Early Scientific Instruments - a pricey but high quality inventory of antique scientific instruments including a notable collection of rules, sectors, and surveying and measuring instruments.
- Meeker’s Mechanical Nature Antiques - a cheap but generally not very old set of rules and drawing instruments.
- The Best of Things - primarily of interest for vintage measuring tools, primarily but not only from America.
- Scientific Instrument Society - UK listing of dealers in scientific instruments, notably including mathematical instruments.
- Antique Scientific Instruments U.K..
- Newbegin Antiques.
- Antiques of Science and Technology A short list of calculators, prices on application.
- Auction Team Breker (Köln (Godorf), Germany) run a scientific instruments speciality auction several times per year and occasionally also list items on ebay. Be aware that when they offer a calculator for sale they frequently attribute to it a much earlier date (for example, the date of the first patent) rather than the actual date of production.
- Bonhams (London) run occasional auctions of scientific instruments.
Reference
- Webster Signature Database Provides an excellent starting point for searching for details of past makers of scientific instruments.
- Kovels database of prices realised at auction Requires the establishing of an account to gain access to prices.
- icollector.com Database of prices realised at auction.
- invaluable.com Database of prices realised at auction.
- Worthpoint Yet another database of prices realised at auction. Prices are generally only available if you subscribe.
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