The acronym MADAS says it all - “multiplication, addition, division - automatically, subtraction”.
Production of the first MADAS calculator began in 1913 and it was the first arithmometer style step-drum calculator with the capacity to perform division automatically. The associated ingenious mechanical innovations, which control a series of additions, subtractions and carriage movements to allow fully automatic division simply by continuing to turn the handle, were designed by Erwin Jahz of Zurich.
Several models of this machine were produced including the first with 7 input sliders, 7 counters, and 12 result register windows, and this one, the largest “IX-Maxima”, with 9 sliders, 9 counters, and 16 result register windows 1
The machine has its case in which is affixed the MADAS Instruction Card in English.
This machine was originally owned by the Tye Furniture store, 100 Bourke St Melbourne, Australia and after the firm had no use for it after the war was kept in safekeeping by a staff member (now deceased) who had used it in the financial work of the store. It is said that companies like Tye held onto such machines until after the war, since it was hard to get newer machinery at that time.2
A table of serial numbers against dates is provided by Martin Reesse.3 This suggests that this particular machine was produced in 1917.
| 1915 serial 3500 at 766 per year |
| 1916 serial ~4266 (induced from 766 per year and very approximate) |
| 1917 serial ~5033 (induced from 767 per year and very approximate) |
| 1918 serial 5800 at 600 per year |
| 1919 serial 6400 at 600 per year (induced and very approximate) |
| 1920 serial 7000 at 1000 per year |
1 For more information see John Wolff’s entries at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~wolff/calculators/Egli/Egli.htm#MADAS viewed 18 February 2012, Rechnerlexikon at http://www.rechnerlexikon.de/artikel/Madas_1 viewed 18 February 2012, and Martin Reese - below. (↑)
2 Private communication with previous owner. (↑)
3 Martin Reese, Hamburg 55 erfolgreiche Jahre: MADAS-Rechenautomaten aus der Schweiz 1913 - 1968, http://www.rechnerlexikon.de/files/MADAS—8-2010.pdf, viewed 18 February 2012. (↑)
Pages linked to this page
This work by Jim Falk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License Click on the logo to the left to see the terms on which you can use it.