we have an addition machine, essentially of Pascal’s type. In it each disk had to be turned by hand. This operation has been simplified in various ways by mechanical means. For pure addition machines key-boards have been added, say for each disk nine keys marked 1 to 9. On pressing the key marked 6 the disk turns six steps and so on. These have been introduced by Stettner (1882), Max Mayer (1887), and in the comptometer by Dorr Z. Felt of Chicago. In the comptograph by Felt and also in “Burrough’s Registering Accountant” the result is printed.
These machines can be used for multiplication, as repeated addition, but the process is laborious, depending for rapid execution essentially on the skill of the operator.[1] To adapt an addition machine, as described, to rapid multiplication the turnings of the separate figure disks are Modified addition machines.replaced by one motion, commonly the turning of a handle. As, however, the different disks have to be turned through different steps, a contrivance has to be inserted which can be “set” in such a way that by one turn of the handle each disk is moved through a number of steps equal to the number of units which is to be added on that disk. This may be done by making each of the figure disks receive on its axis a ten-toothed wheel, called hereafter the A-wheel, which is acted on either directly or indirectly by another wheel (called the B-wheel) in which the number of teeth can be varied from 0 to 9. This variation of the teeth has been effected in different ways. Theoretically the simplest seems to be to have on the B-wheel nine teeth which can be drawn back into the body of the wheel, so that at will any number from 0 to 9 can be made to project. This idea, previously mentioned by Leibnitz, has been realized by Bohdner in the “Brunsviga.” Another way, also due to Leibnitz, consists in inserting between the axis of the handle bar and the A-wheel a “stepped” cylinder. This may be considered as being made up of ten wheels large enough to contain about twenty teeth each; but most of these teeth are cut away so that these wheels retain in succession 9, 8, . . . 1, 0 teeth. If these are made as one piece they form a cylinder with teeth of lengths from 9, 8 . . . times the length of a tooth on a single wheel.
Fig. 2.
In the diagrammatic vertical section of such a machine (fig. 2) FF is a figure disk with a conical wheel A on its axis. In the covering plate HK is the window W. A stepped cylinder is shown at B. The axis Z, which runs along the whole machine, is turned by a handle, and itself turns the cylinder B by aid of conical wheels. Above this cylinder lies an axis EE with square section along which a wheel D can be moved. The same axis carries at E′ a pair of conical wheels C and C′, which can also slide on the axis so that either can be made to drive the A-wheel. The covering plate MK has a slot above the axis EE allowing a rod LL′ to be moved by aid of a button L, carrying the wheel D with it. Along the slot is a scale of numbers 0 1 2 . . . 9 corresponding with the number of teeth on the cylinder B, with which the wheel D will gear in any given position. A series of such slots is shown in the top middle part of Steiger’s machine (fig. 3). Let now the handle driving the axis Z be turned once round, the button being set to 4. Then four teeth of the B-wheel will turn D and with it the A-wheel, and consequently the figure disk will be moved four steps. These steps will be positive or forward if the wheel C gears in A, and consequently four will be added to the figure showing at the window W. But if the wheels CC′ are moved to the right, C′ will gear with A moving backwards, with the result that four is subtracted at the window. This motion of all the wheels C is done simultaneously by the push of a lever which appears at the top plate of the machine, its two positions being marked “addition” and “subtraction.” The B-wheels are in fixed positions below the plate MK. Level with this, but separate, is the plate KH with the window. On it the figure disks are mounted.
This plate is hinged at the back at H and can be lifted up, thereby throwing the A-wheels out of gear. When thus raised the figure disks can be set to any figures; at the same time it can slide to and fro so that an A-wheel can be put in gear with any C-wheel forming with it one “element.” The number of these varies with the size of the machine. Suppose there are six B-wheels and twelve figure disks. Let these be all set to zero with the exception of the last four to the right, these showing 1 4 3 2, and let these be placed opposite the last B-wheels to the right. If now the buttons belonging to the latter be set to 3 2 5 6, then on turning the B-wheels all once round the latter figures will be added to the former, thus showing 4 6 8 8 at the windows. By aid of the axis Z, this turning of the B-wheels is performed simultaneously by the movement of one handle. We have thus an addition machine. If it be required to multiply a number, say 725, by any number up to six figures, say 357, the buttons are set to the figures 725, the windows all showing zero. The handle is then turned, 725 appears at the windows, and successive turns add this number to the first. Hence seven turns show the product seven times 725. Now the plate with the A-wheels is lifted and moved one step to the right, then lowered and the handle turned five times, thus adding fifty times 725 to the product obtained. Finally, by moving the piate again, and turning the handle three times, the required product is obtained. If the machine has six B-wheels and twelve disks the product of two six-figure numbers can be obtained. Division is performed by repeated subtraction. The lever regulating the C-wheel is set to subtraction, producing negative steps at the disks. The dividend is set up at the windows and the divisor at the buttons. Each turn of the handle subtracts the divisor once. To count the number of turns of the handle a second set of windows is arranged with number disks below. These have no carrying arrangement, but one is turned one step for each turn of the handle. The machine described is essentially that of Thomas of Colmar, which was the first that came into practical use. Of earlier machines those of Leibnitz, Müller (1782), and Hahn (1809) deserve to be mentioned (see Dyck, Catalogue). Thomas’s machine has had many imitations, both in England and on the Continent, with more or less important alterations. Joseph Edmondson of Halifax has given it a circular form, which has many advantages.
The accuracy and durability of any machine depend to a great extent on the manner in which the carrying mechanism is constructed. Besides, no wheel must be capable of moving in any other way than that required; hence every part must be locked and be released only when required to move. Further, any disk must carry to the next only after the carrying to itself has been completed. If all were to carry at the same time a considerable force would be required to turn the handle, and serious strains would be introduced. It is for this reason that the B-wheels or cylinders have the greater part of the circumference free from teeth. Again, the carrying acts generally as in the machine described, in one sense only, and this involves that the handle be turned always in the same direction. Subtraction therefore cannot be done by turning it in the opposite way, hence the two wheels C and C′ are introduced. These are moved all at once by one lever acting on a bar shown at R in section (fig. 2).
In the Brunsviga, the figure disks are all mounted on a common horizontal axis, the figures being placed on the rim. On the side of each disk and rigidly connected with it lies its A-wheel with which it can turn independent of the others. The B-wheels, all fixed on another horizontal axis, gear directly on the A-wheels. By an ingenious contrivance the teeth are made to appear from out of the rim to any desired number. The carrying mechanism, too, is different, and so arranged that the handle can be turned either way, no special setting being required for subtraction or division. It is extremely handy, taking up much less room than the others. Professor Eduard Selling of Würzburg has invented an altogether different machine, which has been made by Max Ott, of Munich. The B-wheels are replaced by lazy-tongs. To the joints of these the ends of racks are pinned; and as they are stretched out the racks are moved forward 0 to 9 steps, according to the joints they are pinned to. The racks gear directly in the A-wheels, and the figures are placed on cylinders as in the Brunsviga. The carrying is done continuously by a train of epicycloidal wheels. The working is thus rendered very smooth, without the jerks which the ordinary carrying tooth produces; but the arrangement has the disadvantage that the resulting figures do not appear in a straight line, a figure followed by a 5, for instance, being already carried half a step forward. This is not a serious matter in the hands of a mathematician or an operator using the machine constantly, but it is serious for casual work. Anyhow, it has prevented the machine from being a commercial success, and it is not any longer made. For ease and rapidity of working it surpasses all others. Since the lazy-tongs allow of an extension equivalent to five turnings of the handle, if the multiplier is 5 or under, one push forward will do the
- ↑ For a fuller description of the manner in which a mere addition machine can be used for multiplication and division, and even for the extraction of square roots, see an article by C. V. Boys in Nature, 11th July 1901.
