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Euręka

This is a machine like no other I have seen - It was imported from Germany into France, by the "Ateliers G. Bernard, Paris, 25 Brd. de Strasbourg", as can still be faintly recognized on the top plate of the machine.

eureka calculator picture 1

It is labeled "Importé d'Allemagne" and "Machine ŕ calculer Euręka". Its serial number is 12188, and it is a hybrid between a Burkhardt and a Saxonia, built in the period after they were merged into the Vereinigte Glashütter Rechenmaschinen-Fabriken, Tachometer and Feinmechanische Werke, Glashütte.

eureka calculator picture 1

This is the machine as it arrived.

eureka calculator picture 1

The setting register with rotating levers that is supposed to be dust-tight, and made its debut on Saxonia arithmometers, can clearly be recognized. It was most famously built into the "rolltop" arithmometer, which was supplied in a wooden case with - well, you guessed it - a rolltop, and which currently has become "quite unaffordable". These rotating levers are also featured in other Saxonia machines, like the Saxonia 4, which was however still equipped with a lever for direction switching. Whereas the Saxonia 5 has a keyboard, and the lever-switch, the Saxonia 6 has a keyboard and direction switching with two buttons, as does this machine (complete with the square graphics also used for this system on the Saxonia 6, e.g. s/n 12842). This one, however, doesn't have a keyboard, but the "old" dust-free setting mechanism with turning levers, and is in all other aspects a hybrid between the Saxonia 4, and/or Burkhardt C - the former having the dust-free rotating setting levers, the latter having the key-driven direction switching setup.

25 Boulevard de Strasbourg appears to be a period building, the ground floor of which has been hacked up to make a shop for barbers' supplies.

On arrival, every bakelite or plastic part in the entire machine was missing, the bolt supposed to hold the grip on the main crank was broken off inside the crank stub, a clearing lever had also broken off and was missing, one of the buttons was missing, and all the rotating levers were loose on their axles. The machine was very stiff and in dire need of cleaning.

The restoration happened in three distinct stages, over the course of three years. At first, not long after it arrived, I cleaned the inside of the machine and made it functional again. That was actually the easy part.

In the second step, I drilled out the crank stub and was able to recover the threads, I managed to free up all the stuck screws in the various studs on the machine, and broke off the second clearing handle as well - it was rusted through. I drilled and tapped the clearing plates M4 and made new studs to screw into them.

eureka calculator picture 1

eureka calculator picture 1

eureka calculator picture 1

At this point the machine ended up standing more and more out of sight, and I could never quite find the time to start again on continuing the restoration.

Last week, however, I took a deep breath and cleaned up all the screws that were still there, tapped the holes into the new studs M2.5, remade two screws, one for the main crank and one of the clearing handles.

eureka calculator picture 1

eureka calculator picture 1

Then I turned grips for everything out of wood, which was then primed and painted black. The final touch was to cast a + and - key according to a Monroe pattern, which, strangely, exactly fits the rectangular key stems. I have to admit that I have honestly no idea what happened to the one original button that came with the machine - I'm sure I put it in a safe place, but it just seems to have disappeared. If it ever surfaces again, I can make a cast of that as well to have the machine looking a little more correct. What I also don't know about is the colour of the minus button - it could be white, or red, both appear to occur on Burkhardt and Saxonia machines, but I kind of liked the idea of making the - button black with white inlay, and the + button white with a black inlay, as the original was.

Do note that the oil hole for the crank is also labeled in French - HUILE!

eureka calculator picture 1

And there we are, the machine is finished! eureka calculator picture 1

eureka calculator picture 1

eureka calculator picture 1

eureka calculator picture 1

eureka calculator picture 1

And a bit of the inside...

eureka calculator picture 1