The adding machine may seem antiquated today in an age of advanced computing, yet it revolutionized numeric calculations for decades. The widespread success of the adding machine owes much to the ingenuity of inventor Charles Burroughs. His creative vision transformed the way businesses and accountants handled arithmetic operations.
Burroughs commenced his adding machine work focusing on the tedium he experienced as a bank clerk. The frequent need to tally long columns of numbers proved tiresome and error-prone. Burroughs knew there must be a better way – which led him to conceive a mechanical calculation device.
After years developing prototypes, Burroughs received a patent in 1888 for his "Calculating Machine." The first commercial model debuted in 1892 with a steep $475 price tag. However, it delivered something unprecedented – automated numeric computation.
The early adding machines used a clever arrangement of gears, levers, and movable metal rods with numbered teeth. By entering digits on a keyboard, the rods would slide and rotate to mechanically add values. The sum would display on numbered wheels visible through small windows.
Though the first machines were temperamental, the underlying concept proved sound. Burroughs persisted through years refining the technology to improve reliability and widen capabilities. Models evolved to enable subtraction, multiplication, printing results, and portability.
By 1906, Burroughs commanded nearly 90% market share in the adding machine trade, having aggressively acquired competitors. With over 60 variants, the company offered diverse models catering from modest shops to large enterprises. The brand became synonymous with automated calculation.
Beyond commercial success, the adding machine impacted society by fundamentally changing numeric work. No longer laboriously done by hand, routine calculations could be accomplished faster and with less errors. This allowed businesses and institutions to expand in scale and complexity, having the arithmetic capacity to support large transactions and quantitative decisions.
Though adding machines have been replaced by electronic calculators and computers, they were an indispensable transitional technology. The antiquated mechanical contraptions that once revolutionized math and business remain collectible today as icons of early 20th century automation. Burroughs‘ drive to ingeniously mechanize calculation deserves recognition in enabling this technical and commercial transformation.
