Turn of the Century Computing Patents for Improvements in "Calculating Machines", 1900-1904

Calculating Machines Patent

Ephemera and pamphlets

[Engineering][Invention and Business] Felt, Dorr Eugene. British Patents for Improvements in Calculating Machines (1900–1904) document the development of one of the earliest commercially successful key-driven mechanical calculators, reflecting the rapid mechanization of clerical labor at the turn of the twentieth century. These patents relate to the Comptometer, first introduced in 1890 by the Chicago firm Felt and Tarrant, and represent the extension of American technology into British commercial and financial systems. Banking, insurance, railways, and trade demanded increasingly rapid numerical computation at the turn of the century, meaning mechanical calculation was becoming integral to infrastructure.

Calculating Machines. British Patents: together 2 patents. Patent No. 19,675 (1900) includes 3 pages and 3 folding diagrams; Patent No. 13,094 (1904) includes 11 pages and 5 folding diagrams. 1900–1904. The 1900 patent specification describes modifications “intended to adapt such machines to be used in making calculations in British money,” addressing the complexities of pounds, shillings, and pence within a decimal-based mechanical framework. The 1904 patent details improvements to the Comptometer’s registering wheels, refining accuracy and mechanical efficiency. These documents trace the technical evolution of Felt’s invention, whose origins lay in his 1885 “macaroni box” prototype and whose commercial success positioned the Comptometer as a principal rival to Burroughs calculators in the early twentieth century. Together, the specifications and folding diagrams provide primary evidence of iterative design in early computing machinery and the formal legal mechanisms through which intellectual property structured industrial competition.

Disbound, some leaves loose. Overall very good. As working technical documents issued during a formative period in mechanical computation, these patents illuminate the foundations of modern calculating technology in the pre-electronic era.

Item #20509

Price: $2,800.00