Antique Calculating Devices
Vintage Slide
Rules &
Related Antiques
We can help you sell your
Scientific Related Antiques & Collectibles!!
We deal in and sell early and unusual slide rules, early patented calculation
devices, as well as other
antique
tools and technology related antiques from the home, shop, farm, or office.
We
are full time antique dealers of early
scientific related antiques and actively
deal in a broad range of early technological related antiques.
This is our informational website, and our antique sales site for these
and other types of antiques and collectibles is
www.Patented-Antiques.com.
Please
contact us by email at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
if you have any interesting technological or scientific related antiques
you want to sell.
Antique Calculators & Calculation Devices
Curta Calculators
I will show you some pictures of the
types of scientific antiques and vintage calculation devices and slide
rules that we deal in and are seeking, along with some basic information
to help you determine what you have.
The
picture below is of the ever-popular Curta calculator. The example
pictured is known as a Type 1. This is a step drum calculator that was also produced as a Type 2
during the sa
me time frame. The type 2
Curta has a
slightly larger capacity. These calculating devices were first designed and introduced during
or shortly after the Second World War and were still being made right
up to the time the hand-held electronic calculator caused their popularity to wane
and production to end. Examples sat on
shelves and in back storerooms of drafting supply shops as dead stock for
years until word got out that they were being
collected and prices skyrocketed.
Not too many
years ago these devices could be had for a couple hundred dollars and there were
more than enough to go around. The supply seemed
endless, and the demand scant. The Internet auctions came and the
market changed with a new group of collectors entering the market.
Prices initially went up to new unheard of levels and then back down after that initial demand was
fulfilled and the tech bubble blew up. They are still a popular collectible and demand is pretty
constant with prices for them ranging anywhere from $500-1500.00 or so
depending on a few variables.
Calculator Values
The prices of most later or more modern
calculators also took off for a while and reached new and unheard
of values. The value of these calculators seems to be tied to the
amount of money folks of the proper age group had to spend as disposable
income. High when the stock market was doing well, and not so well
after the bubble burst. I am willing to bet the same is true in
todays market with what is happening in the Real Estate & stock market
again being reflected in the collectibles market, and
I expect that things are going to get soft for a while. Maybe a long
while.
A market was also created
by the internet for electronic hand-held calculators from
our school
days and has evolved during this period also. Another new collectible was born.
It seems that this categories bubble went the same way as the NASDAQ as
well, and I would bet a chart comparing the two would look strangely
familiar. It
will be years, if ever, before some of the lofty
heights that some calculation and other collectibles brought is met again.
I
still sell these and similar types of handheld calculators, but rarely do I want the
larger later and more typically seen modern 10-key models, like those from the 30's or 40's or later including
large Victors, Burroughs,
and a host of the other later 10-key heavyweights that seem to be in every garage and in
every antique booth and even at the end of some ropes in the bottom of
people's boats. There are people who do collect them and are looking for
them, but I do not know them and have no market to sell them in myself.
Check eBay to see what these later 40' - 60's calculators actually sell
for and you will see what i mean.
Early Calculation Devices
Antique and vintage calculating devices have had an interesting and varied period of
development through the years.
Every one is familiar with the abacus,
one of the earliest of all calculating devices.
Another early
form of a
calculator first developed f
or Western civilizations was known as Napier's Bones. These were cubes
or dice-like in shape, and were made from bones or ivory
and real examples are extremely rare and collectible. They are being
reproduced today and sold at various internet sites and auctions, at times with no
indication of their true vintage. Beware.
Logarithmic scales were first introduced by Routledge in the early 1800's and were incorporated into the various forms of rules
and other devices that were the forerunner to the slide rule as we know
it today. These scales were typically found on rules during
the early to mid 1800's for use primarily by merchants and tradespeople
who needed a viable way to run larger calculations for their lines of work
or business.
One of the
first types of mass produced calculating devices that still survive in numbers today
are paper
tables with wheels and dials similar to the adder that is pictured
above on the right. The Palmer's Computing Scale
(not shown) is the
best known and most commonly seen of these types of early paper calculators.
Other versions do exist and are good pieces.
Early Dial type calculators / adders were around pretty
much during the same period. The best known of this style machine is
the well known Webb Adder which was patented in
the
late 1800's like the one pictured on the right. These
were produced in a few different configurations
throughout the years, with the earliest versions having a wooden back On the right is the later version, this one being marked with the
maker's name and patent date. There
are early knockoffs of this calculator / adder that are not marked that are found as well. They were produced to
compete with the real things, much as the pirated tapes and CDs that abound in today's
markets.
On
the left is a pretty rare and earlier model
adder / calculator with this same basic
configuration as those above. It is known
as the Hart
Patent Adder.
I am interested in any of these kinds of
early dial calculators, sliding style calculators, or circular calculators like the one in the
top left corner.
Please note that there is little market for newer sliding adders
like those by the German firm Castell and the Japanese ones from the
1950's that were marketed after World War II and sold from novelty
catalogs and the back of magazines for a $1.00 or so.
I am an active antique
dealer in early or antique calculation devices and looking to add nice
examples to
the sale pages on our sales website located at
www.patented-antiques.com.
I have a good selction of slide rules, calculators, adders and other early
office and scientific antiques listed for sale there right now.
Please take a look if interested in buying or selling.
Key Type Calculation Devices
Near the turn of the century dials began to give way to
key type adders and calculators, or
those with stepped drum and pinwheel style
mechanisms, and when these stepped
drum and pin-wheel models became more economically feasible to manufacture, even though they
were invented years earlier they soon dominated the market.
This
style calculating machine, which quickly and easily performed four functions,
became the
standard. Shortly thereafter calculators became electrified and all of these old style calculators were pretty much relegated to the status of
obsolete but not necessarily collectible. Millions had been produced
and they are still readily available.
The story of the electronic calculator, and the design changes that they went through in a very short period of
time until arriving at today's wonders of technological advances, is a dramatic
and interesting story. There is a very informative and well done site that is
primarily focused on the history of the Hewlett Packard line of
calculators, but they also have a very nice and well done history of
earlier calculation devices leading up to the HP line. A more
detailed history of this period can be found at The Museum of HP
Calculators, and you can go
THERE
if interested. It is interesting reading and should be looked into if
you are trying to identify your calculator, or if this is the sort of
thing that interests you. 
The most famous, and most
commonly found of the early key style machines was known as the
Comptometer, a very popular machine in its day, as attested to by the
sheer number that have survived and are still available today. The most
common versions are found in a tan metal case, but the earliest version came housed in a wooden
case like the one pictured on the right and is much harder to find. Most
10 key machines by other
makers that look similar to this with metal cases
(like the Burroughs) are considered very
common and of little interest to me or to most other collectors of early
calculating technology with limited storage space.
I am interested in buying earlier collectible non-electric calculators that operated with the
stepped drum or
pin-wheel mechanism. Some of the names of these style machines
are
the Marchant, Odhner, Time is Money (TIM), The Millionaire Calculator, The
Peerless Reckoning Machine which was sold by K & E, as well as a host
of others that were being produced early on.
If you have or know of one of these
earlier and interesting adders / calculators that is for sale please
contact me at
LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
.
Examples of Select Antique Slide
Rules & Calculating Devices
Previously Sold
*****Click The Links
Below*****
The above adders / calculators are
an example of the
caliber, condition and quality of these types of devices that we are primarily interested in
buying.
To see additional example of Scientific and Office
related Antiques we currently are selling or have sold please visit our
sister website
www.Patented-Antiques.com
