OLYMPIA MECHANICAL CALCULATOR, 1960's

This is a copy of the original 'Brunsviger' calculator invented by E.T.Odhner in 1890. It is very heavy and quite complicated to use.

Your comments:

• I used a machine like this when I was treasurer at the WRAC Sergeant's Mess in Episkopi Cyprus in 1957. I borrowed it from the Engineers Dept. It was brilliant and easy to use - especially as there were 1,000 mils to the Cyprus pound and the lady before me had not kept the amounts in struct columns.
  .......... Jill Briggs - nee Waugh, Wellington, New Zealand, 20th of September 2014
  
  
• I used a machine such as this in the 60's in the UK in the finance industry where calculations were necessary to recast compounding interest on large balances, and a per annum interest rate was applied on a daily basis. This was well before RSI! Today health and safety regulations would most likely prohibit its use
  .......... R.M Evans, Sydney, Australia, 23rd of February 2011
  
  
• These were in use at the timber merchants I worked for in Yorkshire from about 1978. Calculators were taking overa but the older staff were adamant the brunsviger was better than a calculator. Timber used to be ordered in square meters. Boards came in random width and length. So each board had to be measured to find its area then added to the next board etc. I once challenged an older member of staff to calculate this faster than me on a calculator. We drew, but he could also tell me cost and retail price at same time!! It was a very impresive machine in skilled hands. (but heavy)
  .......... Steve Laycock, kirkcudbright Scotland, 9th of January 2011
  
  
• We had one like this in the drawing office where I was apprenticed. One day it jammed solid and two of the section leaders dismantled it and spent best part of the day trying to reassemble it. It must have been scrapped when the digital calculators became more affordable in the early 1970's (I still use my first Casio green screen one)
  .......... David Mills, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, North Wales, UK, 28th of November 2009
  
  

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