FACIT ADDER MECHANICAL CALCULATOR

Swedish made FACIT adder mechanical calculator.

The "Facit" company was established in Stockholm in 1918 to build a line of pin-wheel calculators based on the Odhner mechanism.

In 1924 Facit became part of Atvidaberg Industries, a long-established firm of office furniture and equipment suppliers. Facit production moved to Atvidaberg, and the model range developed rapidly. As the firm grew it absorbed the Halda typewriter company in 1938, Original-Odhner in 1942, and Addo in 1966. At its peak the company had over a thousand employees, with sales agents in a hundred countries, before collapsing in the early 1970s.

The early Facit calculators were similar to the Odhner, with rotary setting levers and a moving carriage which extended beyond the body of the machine. In the early 1930s engineer Karl Rudin made a radical design change which retained the pin-wheel principle but eliminated the external moving carriage. The pin-wheel mechanism was effectively turned upside-down, with the accumulator and counter registers being fixed in position at the top of the machine, and the rotor arranged to travel laterally within the confines of the body. At the same time, the rotary setting levers were replaced with the two-row "Dalton" keyboard mechanism. The operating levers and the cranking handle were the only external moving parts.

GREEN SHEET METAL CASE

SERIAL NUMBER ON UNDERSIDE

21 CM IN LENGTH, 18,5 WIDE; 14,5 H

                                                                                                                             WEIGHT: 6 KGS

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