Wow! My Dad worked for Monroe from the late 1940s through 1982. He and his colleagues were what I think might be the precursors of the “IT guy”. For they were the repairmen, the technicians, that kept many an office to the businesses and governments of Chicagoland running efficiently by repairing adding machines, calculators, and bookkeeping machines of Monroe. Be it a savings and loan, insurance company, the head office of a multinational business, police precinct, the Federal Reserve Bank, the city waterworks, the scale houses off the kill floors of the Chicago Stockyards packing plants, or the rolling mill control rooms of US Steel, they arrived in suit and tie, polished shoes, and a 30 lb. grip of tools, lubricants, spare parts, and a mysterious book of test calculations and data specific to the repaired machine. And the grip always contained a small ball peen hammer! Never understood how that was used on the intricate mechanisms. Many a weekend at home we were allowed to play with whatever machine Dad brought home for delivery to a customer on Monday. The movable display is called the carriage. And your favorite crank is the carriage shift handle. I would definitely say that the cover was not original to that machine. The machine is probably 40s or early 50s vintage. Litton Industries acquired Monroe around 1960 give or take a year. I would guess the cover came with another newer model, although Dad was always instructed to push supplies and accessories. So maybe it was purchased specifically for your machine after 1960. My Dad only had a high school diploma, yet he raised kids, supported a middle-class family, and even retired on a Monroe/Litton Industries pension. He got out just as the last of mechanical machines also retired. Thanks for bringing back memories of the Monroe Calculating Machine Company and my Dad!
Just wanted to say thank you so much for this video! Got me interested enough in mechanical calculators that I got a broken Monroe 'Educator' (based on the L series) and repaired it. Such a satisfying machine, never had so much fun cranking out square roots!
I love old tech like that. Hard and awkward at first but when you get it down it's fun blasting through the operations. Makes you feel like Frankenstein.
And when you get to know how hard it would be to calculate all that without modern calculators, you really start appreciating all these mechanical computers, monograms and such.
If you need to multiply by a 9 digit anywhere, you could shift the machine one extra step to the right, add one, then shift to the left and SUBTRACT one. That would save you turning the crank 9 times. Similarly for 8 and maybe 7, too. It's probably not worth the hassle for 6.
It works like 9s complements. Consider multiplying a number by 3.1415927 which is 32 turns of the crank. The least number of cranks (24) is 3.14 2 -4073, in other words 9-5=4, 9-9=0, 9-2=7, 10-7=3. 10 is always used on the right most significant digit. The way it’s done is the 2 then going right then left to the 4, 1, 3.
I've watched a ton of videos showcasing different mechanical calculators over the past few days-some older, some more visually striking, some more complex than this one-but I keep coming back to this video because the way it deals with the carriage shift is so cool. This is without a doubt my favorite machine so far. Gotta get one.
Just found one of these at an antique store, and I've been messing with it trying to figure out how it all works. Thanks for the explanation! Super helpful.
Thanks for the great demo. My machine is very similar, except that the keys on the right are orange and the clear button is the same size as the repeat. It sat on my grandfather's desk for years. He was fascinated with it and showed me how to operate it. Of course I forgot all of it so thanks again for the instructions.
I have a question for you. My machine has a feature that I cannot figure out. In between each column of number buttons is a long flat lat lever that runs from top to bottom of the array. (Like a flat ruler.) At the bottom of each lever is a knurled cylindrical knob which allows the lever to be twisted left or right to flip the lever. The top side of each lever is green like the face of the top. The underside of the levers is unpainted. They easily flip over and back. I just can't figure out what they are for.
These are not mechanically connected to anything inside the machine- they are just meant to be a visible signal for the user to use to keep track of where the decimal point is, or as a divider if you’re keeping track of multiple numbers simultaneously.
I’m using my Model K to do some coordinate geometry then an old method of calculating area called DMD (double meridian distance). I was able to do the coordinates with no errors including looking up cosine and sine in the book. The DMD which is just a lot of arithmetic caused me more trouble. I finally had to write down the operations in order then I did that without mistakes. It involves negative numbers too. I can see why they avoided negative numbers. If you get an underflow the procedure is clear the keyboard then copy the lower register down to the keyboard including leading 9s then subtract twice, the answer is a negative number. At that point I added negative numbers and subtracted positive numbers, the next underflow indicates entering positive territory. It’s an art operating the machine.
My first job in Sept 1970 was the Toronto branch. I did deliveries and shortly thereafter got trained on the electromechnical calculators. Also got to work on the bank posting machines ....preprogrammed by hollow punched rods that would calculate bank balances. I got to work on the late 20's to 50's mechanical machines....the older units used brass gears...just beautiful. Later models up to the 50's were powered by electric motors and were not quite as trouble free but there were fast . Luckily I got out as the fully electronic were being phased in. Too bad because in 73 the offshore calculators were very affordable and Monroe Litton could not compete. This company still has fond memories for me.
I used to use one of these types in the City of London every work day from 1965-67. We had lots and my boss had an electric version, which worked the same way but he didn't need to turn any cranks. It is much quicker and easier to use than you might think, particularly when used a lot. Obviously not as quick as the electronic versions introduced around 1970/71, which I then used to sell.
I just picked up 3 ancient machines at an auction for $12.00. The Monroe looks just like the model reviewed here with the exception of two huge red keys above the repeat/cancel repeat. They have add and subtract symbols on them. I'm amazed that the machine still operates now that I know how to do it from your video ! Thank you
I was so impressed when I watched this video I bought myself one 🙂 Just spent the last two days fixing it and now am the proud owner of a fully functioning example
Cool instructional, bud. Thanks. Just got my hands on a machine similar to yours. Also got a Marchant Figurematic which will take some serious fiddling to get going. I'm a bit intimidated by that one. It's like an intricate Swiss watch. 4000 parts... Thanks for posting.
I worked for Monroe Systems for Business from 88 to 99. They were into a bunch of office equipment then but most of that got discontinued, sold off or merged with Savin I think. I was constantly having to travel out of state for them and got tired of it. I asked them if they would lay me off because I didn't want to quit and that's how we parted ways. I still have some good memories though.
Thanks for this. I just found a similar one with 8 rows of buttons and 15 rows in the main display. It needs some TLC and is missing buttons and cranks but does function. There are markers for commas and/or decimals in the display and button area and kickstands. Really amazing. I like to think that mine was used to win WWII or invent the computer, since I found it in Champaign, IL, that might be true.
Magnificent! Now I want one. Beats the hell out of the battery powered crap that dies on me all the time. Not to mention intermittent displays. Thanks for the show.
The issue with this machine is the 3 & 5 slides are sticking on the left, 3 in position 7 and 5 in position 6. I noticed it always turns in a 3 and 5 even when only the right digits are pressed. This is the reason it is turning in 2 instead of 1 on the big addition problem. My LA5 had this issue. It was pretty easy to fix. Remove the carriage and use something such as WD40, wait 15 or 20 minutes then gently work the slides with a flat blade screwdriver. It took five or six iterations over a day to get them completely free, now the machine works great. Remove the carriage for easier access (1 screw on the left side, pull the rod out). Someone suggested lacquer thinner. I took the case and bottom off so I could stuff a rag up under the shutters to catch the excess but this is not absolutely necessary.
Mine arrived today! Appears to work pretty good. At least when I add 1 to 99,999,999 I get 100,000,000, which frankly gives me a giddy thrill. This may be the best fidget toy ever!
If you're doing division, you need to do it digit-by-digit like when you do long-division by hand. In your example you'd get the answer 33.33333, but it won't look like anything special- you'll just keep on getting 3s every time you compute the next digit.
Chris I love that you basically ended this video with the fanciest way of saying "you look so cool using this thing that it'd get you laid", now that's a ringing endorsement!
This is amazing I didn’t know what it was my dad had this and gave it to us Wow mine works great I do need to sell it any ideas how and what I should do
this calculator's functionality (the repeat, the independent displays, &c) remind me rather a lot of the features of the curta calculators - i wonder if there's a genetic relationship there, or if one otherwise influenced the other. i imagine there's likely not that much mechanical similarity, given the wholly different form factors, but ...
I'm confused as to how the division worked. You put the larger number in, then imputed the divisor. Then you cranked the handle 3 times in the hundreds, three times in the tens, and 6 in the ones. The answer is 336 but how would one know to crank that many times and in each position?
You are subtracting with each crank, so you do as many subtractions as possible without going negative. In other words, keep on subtracting until the display value is less than the thing you're subtracting. Or more commonly, (I didn't do this in the video) you keep on subtracting until the machine rolls back past 0000, which is immediately obvious because most of the dials will show 9999s. Then crank it once back the other way to undo that last subtraction, and carry on from there.
@@ChrisStaecker so if the answer was to have a large decimal, you would start with the register way to the left and keep cranking your way to the right? Where do you know where to put the decimal?
@@Pallethands Yes that's right- just like in long division, the digits of the answer will appear from left to right, so you should start as far left as possible to get as many digits of the answer as you can. And also just like long division, it is up to you to decide in your head where the decimal point should go. (This is always easy if you just memorize some rules about # of digits in the numbers you're dividing.)
@@ChrisStaecker I have one of these machines. When you decremented past 0 besides a bunch of 9's showing, a bell rings. Shortly after I got it and old-timer showed me how to extract square roots.
It's an La Series manual calculator, The dust cover is certainly not original it came from the after the take over by Litton Industries . Most mechanical Calculators are directives of the Odhner..It's unfair to compare the Monroe to the Burroughs which is just an adding machine
Yeah you're right- the mechanism inside sticks and sometimes the numbers are wrong. I should've checked that particular example. You can see another mistake at 2:00 when I type 4257 it registers as 3504357. I was hoping nobody would notice! But it only took a couple of hours for you to see it... You get the prize! (there is no prize)
Mine has sticky gears, if I crank too fast the carriage jumps when something hits a sticky gear in there and it skips over. The solution is go slow and push through the stroke more slowly, the real solution is clean and Lube it. A friend says back in the old days they would clean it with kerosene then oil it but I think if I did that my wife wouldn’t let it back in the house.
Since you can strip off all the plastic and painted parts pretty easily, the mechanism in these might respond well to brake cleaner. That would give the best shot at getting all of the old oil out without doing a complete disassembly. Then you just relube and you're set to go!
I just found one of these in a thrift store, still can’t believe it, not looking for it but came around a corner and there it is. $16 but 50% off. Got it for $8. Not sure of operating condition yet.
@@ChrisStaecker the keys are free and they release. The carriage crank is free. I need to watch your video to learn how to use. Right now it appears to be working. It’s sitting on my table next to my desk with computer ready to take over when the EMP hits. Just need the book of tables.
@@ChrisStaecker it works!!! I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. It feels a bit stiff like it needs clean and lube. All 4 functions work per your demonstrations. Division I add in the top number, the turn on R and clear the top register then click over right to the 3rd place and do 3 backwards, click once left and 3 backwards the left to the end and backwards 6 times. I don’t know how you know how many to click backwards.
I thought it had an issue but it turns out it works as intended but it has a quirk in division. It tends to report the last digit 1 less than correct. This is why the manual says to use one more decimal than required in the answer than required (upper register). Most of the practice problems work but this one took me a while to figure out: 63.824/5.75 = 11.10. Maybe it was just my brain farting on rounding. I was getting 11.09. So the answer is 11.0998. I ran it out to 4 places and it correctly reported 11.0998. So it works correctly.
Prior to viewing you, I just watched some bewildered kid discover a Monroe machine with ten place settings on it. He runs an I fix junk I find laying around the wilds. Anyhow, He discovered this rusted thing want to restore it for perpetuity for the masses. Called it a "simple" computer. I say mechanical no simplicity about it, elegant but not simple. We had in the 60's a massive 50Lb crank adding machine with the print roll. Hours of entertainment playing. ours added & subtracted It didn't come with Monroe's Bag of chips options. I felt like a wizard cranking away on our toe-stubbing closet filler till tax time toy. I figured this kids find was for adding or by the lack of heft & gearing a punch card printer. I found you rather than try to explain how to use ten columns keys and the place settings & cranking... I gave felonious info about three keys on the right and their usage but gave him a pathway to you. Hope it's OK and this is a passion for you. He is likely far-flung from you, don't think he's a peeper. here's his TH-cam thing to view... watch?v=A4lC-cXsAjM&list=TLPQMDQwMTIwMjA07aD1l3ES-Q&index=5&frags=wn PS. If he gets it working we can fight who buys it I may want to re-live my misspent youth twiddling the crank & knobs. Like your Content!
My father just found one of this monroe adding machines... and it looks to me as wtf is that??!!..🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️ anyway... my dad just disassembled this one to try to restore it... but heck... he doesn't know how to assemble anymore!!!...🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
![CAMPปลิ้น | EP.83[1/2] เปิดแคมป์หลอนต้อนรับ 2 ตัวพ่อแห่งวงการผี!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2uPuHYHgwiI/mqdefault.jpg)
Wow! My Dad worked for Monroe from the late 1940s through 1982. He and his colleagues were what I think might be the precursors of the “IT guy”. For they were the repairmen, the technicians, that kept many an office to the businesses and governments of Chicagoland running efficiently by repairing adding machines, calculators, and bookkeeping machines of Monroe. Be it a savings and loan, insurance company, the head office of a multinational business, police precinct, the Federal Reserve Bank, the city waterworks, the scale houses off the kill floors of the Chicago Stockyards packing plants, or the rolling mill control rooms of US Steel, they arrived in suit and tie, polished shoes, and a 30 lb. grip of tools, lubricants, spare parts, and a mysterious book of test calculations and data specific to the repaired machine. And the grip always contained a small ball peen hammer! Never understood how that was used on the intricate mechanisms. Many a weekend at home we were allowed to play with whatever machine Dad brought home for delivery to a customer on Monday.
The movable display is called the carriage. And your favorite crank is the carriage shift handle. I would definitely say that the cover was not original to that machine. The machine is probably 40s or early 50s vintage. Litton Industries acquired Monroe around 1960 give or take a year. I would guess the cover came with another newer model, although Dad was always instructed to push supplies and accessories. So maybe it was purchased specifically for your machine after 1960.
My Dad only had a high school diploma, yet he raised kids, supported a middle-class family, and even retired on a Monroe/Litton Industries pension. He got out just as the last of mechanical machines also retired.
Thanks for bringing back memories of the Monroe Calculating Machine Company and my Dad!
How cool is that bro!!!!👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼
Thanks for adding all this wonderful detail.
Just wanted to say thank you so much for this video! Got me interested enough in mechanical calculators that I got a broken Monroe 'Educator' (based on the L series) and repaired it. Such a satisfying machine, never had so much fun cranking out square roots!
I love old tech like that. Hard and awkward at first but when you get it down it's fun blasting through the operations. Makes you feel like Frankenstein.
like Frankestein?
And when you get to know how hard it would be to calculate all that without modern calculators, you really start appreciating all these mechanical computers, monograms and such.
I literally gasped when you started demoing the third crank.
If you need to multiply by a 9 digit anywhere, you could shift the machine one extra step to the right, add one, then shift to the left and SUBTRACT one. That would save you turning the crank 9 times. Similarly for 8 and maybe 7, too. It's probably not worth the hassle for 6.
That's how you do it. It's faster.
The Monroe shortcut method.
It works like 9s complements. Consider multiplying a number by 3.1415927 which is 32 turns of the crank. The least number of cranks (24) is 3.14 2 -4073, in other words 9-5=4, 9-9=0, 9-2=7, 10-7=3. 10 is always used on the right most significant digit. The way it’s done is the 2 then going right then left to the 4, 1, 3.
I've watched a ton of videos showcasing different mechanical calculators over the past few days-some older, some more visually striking, some more complex than this one-but I keep coming back to this video because the way it deals with the carriage shift is so cool. This is without a doubt my favorite machine so far. Gotta get one.
Love your sense of humour and your wonderment at the machine, made it really engaging to watch!
I don’t know why I am watching a channel about math gizmos but you have me hooked! Great job!
Just found one of these at an antique store, and I've been messing with it trying to figure out how it all works. Thanks for the explanation! Super helpful.
Thanks for the great demo. My machine is very similar, except that the keys on the right are orange and the clear button is the same size as the repeat. It sat on my grandfather's desk for years. He was fascinated with it and showed me how to operate it. Of course I forgot all of it so thanks again for the instructions.
I have a question for you. My machine has a feature that I cannot figure out. In between each column of number buttons is a long flat lat lever that runs from top to bottom of the array. (Like a flat ruler.) At the bottom of each lever is a knurled cylindrical knob which allows the lever to be twisted left or right to flip the lever. The top side of each lever is green like the face of the top. The underside of the levers is unpainted. They easily flip over and back. I just can't figure out what they are for.
These are not mechanically connected to anything inside the machine- they are just meant to be a visible signal for the user to use to keep track of where the decimal point is, or as a divider if you’re keeping track of multiple numbers simultaneously.
@@ChrisStaecker thank you
I’m using my Model K to do some coordinate geometry then an old method of calculating area called DMD (double meridian distance). I was able to do the coordinates with no errors including looking up cosine and sine in the book.
The DMD which is just a lot of arithmetic caused me more trouble. I finally had to write down the operations in order then I did that without mistakes. It involves negative numbers too. I can see why they avoided negative numbers. If you get an underflow the procedure is clear the keyboard then copy the lower register down to the keyboard including leading 9s then subtract twice, the answer is a negative number. At that point I added negative numbers and subtracted positive numbers, the next underflow indicates entering positive territory. It’s an art operating the machine.
These are very cool machines, and leagues beyond many of the others! Thanks for showing it off!
Thanks for watching!
Absolute mind blowing stuff
a true connoisseur of not just machinery but fine typography as well, stunning.
Hahah. Amazing end line. Your humor is amazing.
I played with this exact same machine in early 60s. My dad was in the insurance industry, I loved it. Wow, flooded with memories.
What a clever machine. So well designed, because it is so simple mechanically, and more importantly very easy to use.
Fascinating. My 12 yr old son found one of these exact models at goodwill and is intrigued by it. Thanks for the video.
That’s a good find at a goodwill! Did you get it?
My first job in Sept 1970 was the Toronto branch. I did deliveries and shortly thereafter got trained on the electromechnical calculators. Also got to work on the bank posting machines ....preprogrammed by hollow punched rods that would calculate bank balances. I got to work on the late 20's to 50's mechanical machines....the older units used brass gears...just beautiful. Later models up to the 50's were powered by electric motors and were not quite as trouble free but there were fast . Luckily I got out as the fully electronic were being phased in. Too bad because in 73 the offshore calculators were very affordable and Monroe Litton could not compete. This company still has fond memories for me.
I used to use one of these types in the City of London every work day from 1965-67. We had lots and my boss had an electric version, which worked the same way but he didn't need to turn any cranks. It is much quicker and easier to use than you might think, particularly when used a lot. Obviously not as quick as the electronic versions introduced around 1970/71, which I then used to sell.
I just picked up 3 ancient machines at an auction for $12.00. The Monroe looks just like the model reviewed here with the exception of two huge red keys above the repeat/cancel repeat. They have add and subtract symbols on them. I'm amazed that the machine still operates now that I know how to do it from your video ! Thank you
$12 is a great price- welcome to the good life!
I was so impressed when I watched this video I bought myself one 🙂
Just spent the last two days fixing it and now am the proud owner of a fully functioning example
Update: I have now just bought a second identical model as it was going so cheap I couldn't resist it - help me!!!
I offer no help! We share a common ailment
Cool instructional, bud. Thanks.
Just got my hands on a machine similar to yours.
Also got a Marchant Figurematic which will take some serious fiddling to get going.
I'm a bit intimidated by that one. It's like an intricate Swiss watch. 4000 parts...
Thanks for posting.
I worked for Monroe Systems for Business from 88 to 99. They were into a bunch of office equipment then but most of that got discontinued, sold off or merged with Savin I think. I was constantly having to travel out of state for them and got tired of it. I asked them if they would lay me off because I didn't want to quit and that's how we parted ways. I still have some good memories though.
Thanks for this. I just found a similar one with 8 rows of buttons and 15 rows in the main display. It needs some TLC and is missing buttons and cranks but does function. There are markers for commas and/or decimals in the display and button area and kickstands. Really amazing. I like to think that mine was used to win WWII or invent the computer, since I found it in Champaign, IL, that might be true.
Magnificent! Now I want one. Beats the hell out of the battery powered crap that dies on me all the time. Not to mention intermittent displays. Thanks for the show.
The issue with this machine is the 3 & 5 slides are sticking on the left, 3 in position 7 and 5 in position 6. I noticed it always turns in a 3 and 5 even when only the right digits are pressed. This is the reason it is turning in 2 instead of 1 on the big addition problem. My LA5 had this issue. It was pretty easy to fix. Remove the carriage and use something such as WD40, wait 15 or 20 minutes then gently work the slides with a flat blade screwdriver. It took five or six iterations over a day to get them completely free, now the machine works great. Remove the carriage for easier access (1 screw on the left side, pull the rod out). Someone suggested lacquer thinner. I took the case and bottom off so I could stuff a rag up under the shutters to catch the excess but this is not absolutely necessary.
Mine arrived today! Appears to work pretty good. At least when I add 1 to 99,999,999 I get 100,000,000, which frankly gives me a giddy thrill. This may be the best fidget toy ever!
Could you do a sublet showing what happens when you divide a pair of numbers that end in a remainder/decimal, such as 100/3=33-1/3?
If you're doing division, you need to do it digit-by-digit like when you do long-division by hand. In your example you'd get the answer 33.33333, but it won't look like anything special- you'll just keep on getting 3s every time you compute the next digit.
You deserve more views!
Indeed... this one is so cool!!!👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼
Chris I love that you basically ended this video with the fanciest way of saying "you look so cool using this thing that it'd get you laid", now that's a ringing endorsement!
Wish I could say it was firsthand experience...
I now have a favourite adding machine... for some reason.
This is amazing I didn’t know what it was my dad had this and gave it to us Wow mine works great I do need to sell it any ideas how and what I should do
I’d have love to bring this to a high school math class as student. Lol.
Monroe Calculator had a manufacturing facility in Orange New Jersey. It is sadly an abandoned hulk now.
Do you have any pictures of the internals? Im refurbishing one and I think I'm missing the piece that helps clear the board after every turn.
Sorry- I never opened it.
this calculator's functionality (the repeat, the independent displays, &c) remind me rather a lot of the features of the curta calculators - i wonder if there's a genetic relationship there, or if one otherwise influenced the other. i imagine there's likely not that much mechanical similarity, given the wholly different form factors, but ...
Yes the way you use it is very similar to the Curta. I'd love to do a Curta video- you want to send me one?
hah! i wish i had one to send
@@ChrisStaecker Man, if I ever win the lotto . . .
I'm confused as to how the division worked. You put the larger number in, then imputed the divisor. Then you cranked the handle 3 times in the hundreds, three times in the tens, and 6 in the ones. The answer is 336 but how would one know to crank that many times and in each position?
You are subtracting with each crank, so you do as many subtractions as possible without going negative. In other words, keep on subtracting until the display value is less than the thing you're subtracting.
Or more commonly, (I didn't do this in the video) you keep on subtracting until the machine rolls back past 0000, which is immediately obvious because most of the dials will show 9999s. Then crank it once back the other way to undo that last subtraction, and carry on from there.
@@ChrisStaecker so if the answer was to have a large decimal, you would start with the register way to the left and keep cranking your way to the right? Where do you know where to put the decimal?
@@Pallethands Yes that's right- just like in long division, the digits of the answer will appear from left to right, so you should start as far left as possible to get as many digits of the answer as you can.
And also just like long division, it is up to you to decide in your head where the decimal point should go. (This is always easy if you just memorize some rules about # of digits in the numbers you're dividing.)
@@ChrisStaecker I have one of these machines. When you decremented past 0 besides a bunch of 9's showing, a bell rings.
Shortly after I got it and old-timer showed me how to extract square roots.
Reminds me of the Arithmometer
It's an La Series manual calculator, The dust cover is certainly not original it came from the after the take over by Litton Industries . Most mechanical Calculators are directives of the Odhner..It's unfair to compare the Monroe to the Burroughs which is just an adding machine
How many bridges, tunnels, houses, stadiums and other structures would have been calculated with this machine back in the day...
This thing is broken 3542167 + 7803255 = 11345422 not 12345422
Yeah you're right- the mechanism inside sticks and sometimes the numbers are wrong. I should've checked that particular example. You can see another mistake at 2:00 when I type 4257 it registers as 3504357. I was hoping nobody would notice! But it only took a couple of hours for you to see it... You get the prize! (there is no prize)
Mine has sticky gears, if I crank too fast the carriage jumps when something hits a sticky gear in there and it skips over. The solution is go slow and push through the stroke more slowly, the real solution is clean and Lube it. A friend says back in the old days they would clean it with kerosene then oil it but I think if I did that my wife wouldn’t let it back in the house.
Since you can strip off all the plastic and painted parts pretty easily, the mechanism in these might respond well to brake cleaner. That would give the best shot at getting all of the old oil out without doing a complete disassembly. Then you just relube and you're set to go!
I just found one of these in a thrift store, still can’t believe it, not looking for it but came around a corner and there it is. $16 but 50% off. Got it for $8. Not sure of operating condition yet.
Nice- $8 is a deal! Hope it works-
Just found a K+E 4055 slide rule in antique store for $40. Not sure how good that is, may be a bit high. The dealer has a larger one, different brand
@@ChrisStaecker the keys are free and they release. The carriage crank is free. I need to watch your video to learn how to use. Right now it appears to be working. It’s sitting on my table next to my desk with computer ready to take over when the EMP hits. Just need the book of tables.
@@ChrisStaecker it works!!! I can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. It feels a bit stiff like it needs clean and lube. All 4 functions work per your demonstrations. Division I add in the top number, the turn on R and clear the top register then click over right to the 3rd place and do 3 backwards, click once left and 3 backwards the left to the end and backwards 6 times. I don’t know how you know how many to click backwards.
I thought it had an issue but it turns out it works as intended but it has a quirk in division. It tends to report the last digit 1 less than correct. This is why the manual says to use one more decimal than required in the answer than required (upper register). Most of the practice problems work but this one took me a while to figure out: 63.824/5.75 = 11.10. Maybe it was just my brain farting on rounding. I was getting 11.09. So the answer is 11.0998. I ran it out to 4 places and it correctly reported 11.0998. So it works correctly.
WOW
Prior to viewing you, I just watched some bewildered kid discover a Monroe machine with ten place settings on it. He runs an I fix junk I find laying around the wilds. Anyhow, He discovered this rusted thing want to restore it for perpetuity for the masses. Called it a "simple" computer. I say mechanical no simplicity about it, elegant but not simple. We had in the 60's a massive 50Lb crank adding machine with the print roll. Hours of entertainment playing. ours added & subtracted It didn't come with Monroe's Bag of chips options. I felt like a wizard cranking away on our toe-stubbing closet filler till tax time toy. I figured this kids find was for adding or by the lack of heft & gearing a punch card printer. I found you rather than try to explain how to use ten columns keys and the place settings & cranking... I gave felonious info about three keys on the right and their usage but gave him a pathway to you. Hope it's OK and this is a passion for you. He is likely far-flung from you, don't think he's a peeper. here's his TH-cam thing to view... watch?v=A4lC-cXsAjM&list=TLPQMDQwMTIwMjA07aD1l3ES-Q&index=5&frags=wn PS. If he gets it working we can fight who buys it I may want to re-live my misspent youth twiddling the crank & knobs. Like your Content!
I feel like that's the calculator for me
Is there room in that ❤ for another?...............................................NOPE 💔
I work at the bank and still use this
Really????
why?
My father just found one of this monroe adding machines... and it looks to me as wtf is that??!!..🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️ anyway... my dad just disassembled this one to try to restore it... but heck... he doesn't know how to assemble anymore!!!...🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️