Original Odhner 18 and 20
Two more machines in the "Alien" range, one with a little more capacity than the other (20 digits in the result register for the type 20, instead of 19 for the type 18). The larger machine also has non-automatic direction switching in the counter register
The larger machine, N°20, s/n 110.450, I went to pick up near Liège, in Belgium, and it is also originally a Belgian machine, sold by the importer at 7 Rue de l'Académie in Liège, Les Etablissements Portelange. I was able to find some company history, they were established in 1946 by Louis and Alfred Portelange, as a company for selling office machinery and furniture, and three years later they also opened a workshop for repairs. The name changed to "Business Machines Portelange" in 1955, which lasted until 1988, when it was changed again to Konica Business Machines Belgium, and the company seat was transferred to Brussels. Currently, Konica has merged with Minolta, and so the old Etablissements Portelange is now completely part of the Japanese group- and they are still in office machines - copiers, printers, ... If the building at 7 Rue de l'Academie still exists, I cannot find it on Google Maps.
The counter clearing handle of this machine broke, and it was replaced. If I ever find an Odhner parts machine not worth restoring, I can replace it with the proper handle.
The other machine, the N° 18, s/n 88086, came from much closer. An internet advert from the son of a man with "extreme collection disorder" secured the machine, which had spent decades in a garden shed, and looked like it too. In addition, it was completely blocked. The repair turned out to be relatively easy - the repairs boiled down to the last of the tens carry pins in the pinwheel cylinder having come off its pivot point, thus blocking the unlocking mechanism for the setting levers. Afterwards, the setting register was out of sync with the setting pins, easily remedied by rotating the cylinder a bit, then pushing the lock in the handle, and turning the numeral wheels to the correct position. The main crank handle has been replaced, and since the handles on this type of Odhner machine are peened in place, it will be quite impossible to replace it with the correct handle, unless by changing out the entire crank. A lot of cleaning, and a bit of polishing later, the machine looks like this:
Finally, the two little sisters together:
Machine N° 88086 was since replaced with a machine bought by my dad on a flea market in Mechelen (luckily he always calls me first before buying something - the pickings at random fleamarkets are often slim, and I have rather enough WSR160s and Brunsviga 13RKs...). It was owned by a retired office machine mechanic, who has a small collection of machines that he kept after retiring. Now he was selling this one, at a very affordable price, I might add. I'm keeping this one and selling the other one because of the condition of the nickeled parts, as well as the presence of a belgian dealer plate, which the other machine did not have. Here are the pictures:
