There is nothing romantic in figures, and the average man takes little interest in any subject pertaining to them. As a result of this antipathy, there is plenty of historic evidence of man’s endeavor to minimize the hated drudgery of calculation.

While history shows that, from prehistoric man down to the present age, human ingenuity has turned to mechanical means to overcome the brain fatigue of arithmetical figuring, it is within quite recent years that he has really succeeded in devising means more rapid than the human brain.

Of this modern product little has been written, except in disconnected articles that have in no case offered a complete understanding as to who were the great benefactors of mankind that gave to the world the first concrete production of these modern principles of mechanical calculation.

The writer, believing that there are many who would be interested to know the true facts relative to this subject, has given to the public, in that which follows, a chronicle of the evolution of the principles disclosed in these modern machines, along with the proofs that form the foundation for the story in a way that all may understand.

Although the subject has been handled in a way that makes it unnecessary for the reader to be carried through a jangle of tiresome mechanical construction, the writer believes that there are many interested in the detail workings of these machines, and has for that reason provided an interesting and simple description of the working of each illustrated machine, which may be read by those who wish, or skipped over, if the reader desires, without the danger of losing knowledge of the relation of each of these machines to the Art.

Chapters

PAGE
Foreword[ 1]
Types of Ancient and Modern Machines[ 5]
The Early Key-Driven Art[17]
The Key-Driven Calculator[50]
Early Efforts in the Recording Machine Art[79]
First Practical Recorders[111]
Introduction of the Modern Accounting Machine [144]
The High-Speed Calculator[149]
The Improved Recorder[163]
The Bookkeeping and Billing Machine[174]
A Closing Word[190]

Illustrations

PAGE
[Frontispiece], “Stone Age Calculating”
One of the Pascal Machines[10]
Photo of Blaise Pascal[11]
Parmelee Patent Drawings[16]
Hill Patent Drawings[23]
Chapin Patent Drawings[28]
From the Stark Patent Drawings[32]
From the Robjohn Patent Drawings[36]
From Drawings of Bouchet Patent 314,561[40]
Drawings of Spalding Patent No. 293,809[46]
“Macaroni Box” Model[53]
Photo of Dorr E. Felt[55]
The First “Comptometer”[57]
From Drawings of Felt Patent No. 371,496[58]
Bill for First Manufacturing Tools of the Comptometer[68]
Early Comptometer[69]
Letter from Geo. W. Martin[71]
Testimonial[72]
Testimonial[73]
Letters from Elliott and Rosecrans[74]
From Drawings of Barbour Patent No. 133,188[78]
From Drawings of Baldwin Patent No. 159,244[83]
Baldwin Machine[83]
From Drawings of Pottin Patent No. 312,014[88]
From Drawings of Burroughs Patent No. 388,118[94]
Photo of Wm. S. Burroughs[95]
Drawings of Ludlum Patent No. 384,373[104]
From Drawings of Felt Patent No. 405,024[112]
Testimonial[117]
Felt Recording and Listing Machine[118]
From Drawings of Felt Patent No. 465,255[121]
Felt Tabulator[126]
One of the Early “Comptographs”[130]
Photo of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz[132]
Leibnitz Calculator[133]
From Drawings of Burroughs’ Patents Nos. 504,963 and 505,078 [136]
Burroughs’ Recorder[137]
From the February 1908 Issue of Office Appliances Magazine[142]
The High-Speed Calculator[148]
Two Pages from Wales Adding Machine Co. Booklet[165]
Moon-Hopkins Billing and Bookkeeping Machine[176]
Napier’s Bones[179]
From Drawings of Barbour Patent No. 130,404[180]
Photo of John Napier[181]
From Drawings of Bollee Patent No. 556,720[186]