Dactyle B
I have put it off for a long time to write anything about this machine, and it has stood, partly disassembled, in the living room for months. However, after bringing it to the attention of Wolfgang Irler, who was researching the input zeroing mechanism on Chateau and Dactyle machines, and after he subsequently mentioned it in HBw-Aktuell of May 2014, I felt obliged to do something about the machine.
First of all, what was the issue? I found the machine cheap on the website of a second-hand consignment store, who will sell whatever you bring them for an agreed price, and take a cut off the profit. There was one bad picture, I emailed them, and they were willing to send it to me. When the machine arrived, it was immediately clear to me that disaster had struck it, and if not disaster, then at least someone with a block of concrete or a sledgehammer. Trying to turn the crank would produce heart-breaking grinding sounds from within. This was not such a wonder, as the top cover was severely dented inwards in the middle. After removing the dent as well as I could, things improved, but were still not great. Also, the machine would not calculate correctly. When I noticed, late at night, that some of the pinwheel disks has twisted on the main axle, I decided to call it a night and set the machine aside -until today.
I have already documented the zeroing mechanism on the Chateau page, I'm posting some more pictures here that may allow to better understand exactly how it works:
And with the lever on M:
In addition, there is another feature, which the Chateau also has, but which I didn't document - it is an arrangement to not only lock the carriage, but also make sure that the position of the carriage is correct. It is for all practical purposes identical to the mechanism in the Preciosa machine, which was patented in Germany in 1911, Patent DE 253581. This machine was almost certainly made afterwards - when what German patents that could be found were seized after end of the Great War. One wonders whether this is how the Chateau brothers arrived at this idea. The result of this mechanism is that the carriage is pushed into one of its stop positions as soon as a crank turn begins, and is held there until it is over. Some pictures:
And then finally, with everything back together, and all pinwheel disks rotated to their correct positions, the machine still didn't work properly. No wonder, it turned out that the main axle had taken such a hit when the cover was damaged so badly that it was completely bent in the middle, causing it to once again rub the input cover. If you think you can see it int he picture below, it is probably a trick in the perspective, because the bend was actually in the exact opposite direction of what it looks like in this picture... in any case, it serves to show that some of the positions of the pinwheel disks are decidedly wonky - see e.g. the first one from the right in the tens carry for the revolution counter, and the last one on the left of the regular part of the pinwheel cylinder. It doesn't help that they are held in place, about 60 years after Willgodt T. Odhner came up with that idea, with a single locknut and aren't keyed to the axle! (it sure is a big help when taking things apart though ...)
So- this is something that one usually avoids when trying to repair antique calculators - but it was just what this one needed, and a pair of sturdy whacks later all was well again! Don't try this at home!
It did survive relatively unscathed, and now everything works correctly - phew!
