Melitta VII-16
Funny name for a calculator - we have coffee filters made by this brand. The machine itself is quite interesting though. Also a late design, in a nice bordeaux colour, with all bells and whistles, such as thumb-operated carriage movement, back transfer, and non-moving setting levers. The reason for this is that it is not a pinwheel calculator, but based on the same principle as the Hamann-Manus and Marchant machines, namely geared sectors. There are two more interesting features about this machine: first of all, if you can't get it to work, make sure the lock is off. There is a small button at the back of the crank support which serves to lock the machine. The second interesting thing is that the clearing crank (one for both registers, there is a three position selection switch that uncouples the registers when needed) has to be rotated twice to clear the registers - there is a reduction gear. If you bought the machine without trying it, I suppose this would have been a major disappointment - and I have no clue why they would do this, the trend was rather to go to quick-clearing with levers as opposed to having to crank. Odd.
