Calco
This very interesting machine was brought to my attention by a friend - it was on a Romanian second-hand site. What it was doing in Romania, and how it got there we will probably never find out, but it is in any case a rather unlikely place for it to end up, as it was originally made in very small numbers by the Nordisk Regnemaskin Fabrik in Kobnhavn in Denmark.This company produced the first Danish pinwheel calculator, according to them with Danish design, work and capital. They started rolling out trial machines at one bank in September 1919, and had them put through daily use for two years. They were very proud of thir warranty, and the reviews from customers are glowing. All of this can be found in the manual that was kept at the Danish technical library - a copy is here. The machine was the brainchild of Kresten Sigfred Greve Scheel af Estrup, who was the director of the Nordisk Regnemaskin Fabrik. By the end of 1922 they were ready to start producing in earnest, but unfortunately in 1923 Scheel died, and that was the end of the story. The brand and logo were registered in Jan. 1921.
So how this little calculator ended up in Transsylvania, we'll probably never know. But I negotiated it away from its previous owner with some kind help from a local Romanian (the original proprietor spoke not a word of English, French or German, and was mainly interested in catching very large fish, judging from his profile picture on the website ...). The packaging was more than adequate, and in a week or so it made its way to Belgium.
This is how it arrived - a bit dull, a bit blocked, and especially very, very dirty.
The machine needs its wooden baseplat to stand up straight, as part of the carriage movement mechanism projects under the metal base of the machine (a metal cover is thoughtfully provided for that)
The amount of dirt was eyewatering...
Since the machine has input clearing, part of the teeth of this direction safety gear had to be removed for the input clearing to be able to work.
The large disk interferes with a rubber block that has disappeared in the mean time, in order to provide an interlock for carriage clearing and the rotation of the main crank.
Strangely, the revolution counter wheels are coloured grey, the result register is black - tens' carry is not provided for the revolution counter.
Some cleaning was necessary - before:
After:
Also for the top plate. The 110 is stamped everywhere and is probably the serial number of the machine.
Carriage cleaned as well:
Everything nearly back together in a quite clean state:
And its official state portrait:
