MECHANICAL CALCULATORS - 19TH CENTURY - THOMAS DE COLMAR, 7 VOLUMES

i. Francoeur, Louis-Benjamin (1773-1849). "Rapport…sur la machine à calculer de M. le Chevalier Thomas, de Colmar… no. 33, à Paris" [in:] Bulletin de la Société D'Encouragement pour L'Industrie Nationale, Vingt-unième année, No. CCXII, Février 1822. Paris: Imprimerie de Madame Huzard, 1822, 4to, green morocco backed boards, spine gilt, marbled endpapers, modern folding cloth box, (bought from Biblion, 1993), [T&W F95], rubbed  ii. [Anonymous]. Instruction pour se servir de L'Arithmomètre, machine a calculer inventée par M. Thomas. Paris: Blondeau, 1856, 8vo, later edition, yellow wrappers, morocco-backed folding box, [T&W T23], spotting, wrappers worn with some minor loss iii. Warren, Thomas T. P. Bruce. "On the application of the calculating machine of M. Thomas de Colmar to electrical computations" [in:] Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, including original communications on telegraphy and electrical science, vol. 1, no. 2, 1872, pp.141-168. London: Society of Telegraph Engineers, 1872, 8vo, half morocco, spine gilt, [T&W W14; Origins of Cyberspace 406], some plates in the volume torn with some loss, rubbed iv. [Anonymous]. Instruction pour se servir de L'Arithmomètre machine a calculer inventée par M. Thomas (de Colmar). Paris: Felix Malteste, 1873. 8vo, later edition, folding plate, green wrappers, (bought from Roger Gaskell, 1996), [T&W T24], wrappers slightly soiled v. Reuleaux, Franz (1829-1905). Die sogenannte Thomas'sche Rechenmaschine. Leipzig: Arthur Felix, 1892. 8vo, 1 folding plate, blue wrappers, presentation inscription on upper wrapper, (bought from Palinurus, 1992), [T&W R76] vi. Payen, Louis Toussaint (b. 1839). Arithmomètre L. Payen. Machine à calculer. Paris: c. 1910. 8vo, green wrappers, [T&W C11], some gatherings loose, wrappers very worn, creased, tape at edges for reinforcement vii. Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale. Numéro commémoratif du Centenaire de l'invention, par Thomas De Colmar, de la première machine à calculer industrielle. Paris: Siège de la Société, 1920. 4to, original green wrappers laid down on later binding, (bought from Alain Brieux, 2004), [not in T&W]

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The first mass produced calculator. Thomas de Colmar (1785-1870) patented his Arithmometer in France in 1820 but production began almost 30 years later. It was the only machine deemed reliable and accurate enough to be used in government, banks, and insurance and thus became the first to be regularly used in the workplace, worldwide. De Colmar went on to found one of the largest insurance companies in France. [together with]

An important letter signed (“Arth.Burkhardt”), about calculating machines [including his own Arithmometer], describing the frustrations he experienced developing it in Göttingen, seeking his support and that of the government minister, discussing the price of his machine, comparing it with others, enclosing photographs of one [by Thomas of Colmar] illustrated by Franz Reuleaux, describing a lecture he gave with Professor Rittenhaus on the subject at Dresden, where he assembled and demonstrated all the available calculating machines by Hahn, Curt Dietzschold, Otto Büttner, Brunsviga and others, going on to explain the merits and weaknesses of each, 4 pages, 4to, printed stationery of the “1. Deutsche Rechenmaschinen-Fabrik”, Glashütte (Saxony), 8 June 1893, splitting at folds, overall browning

“...Um Ihnen über die anderen Maschine ein Bild zu verschaffen muss ich mich einen Vortrag zurück kommen, welchen ich im Polytechnikum Dresden, gemeinsam mit Herrn Prof. Rittershaus gehalten habe. Die Hahn’sche Maschine war der Anknüpfungspunkte dazu. Ich hatte Herrn Geheimrath Hegel daran geschrieben und sofort hat er mich mit einer großen Anzahl herren und Professoren besucht. Um diese Maschine auch weiteren Kreisen bekannt zu machen wurde ich zu einer Vorführung von allen Rechenmaschinen, welche nur zugänglich gemacht werden konnten ersucht, während Herr Prof Rittershaus einen kurzen Abriss der Geschichte der R. heilt. Zu diesem Zwecke sind mir nun durch ausserordentliche Bereitwilligkeit, ausser der Hahn’schen Maschine, fast alle Maschinen die in Dresden aufzutreiben waren, zur Verfügung gestellt ware...”

Arthur Burkhardt (1857-1918) produced the first commercial German calculating machine, the Burckhardt Arithmometer, in Glashütte in c.1885, based on one by Charles Thomas of Colmar (described by Reuleaux). The construction of the Burkhardt Arithmometer began around 1885, and by 1892 about 500 machines were manufactured. Burkhardt’s letter may be connected with his successful efforts with Hugo Bunzel to sell his Arithmometer in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire;