Mechanical Calculator Demo - Electric Mercedes Euklid Model 21 - Retrotech

[@iosmusicman]

Great combination of video and music. I love the typewriter credits. Cheers. Lee

[@GrumpyTim]

Cheers iosmusicman, not everyone appreciates my music, but I guess you can't please everyone all of the time. The Mercedes is a beast of a machine - the sheer weight of it still surprises me when I have to pick it up.

[@ohjajohh]

I learn more from your videos than I did in math class :)

[@GrumpyTim]

Hi ohjajohh, I've learned more about math (or maths depending on which country you come from) than I ever did at school, since I started playing around with mechanical calculators - I just find it easier to learn when the calculations are happening right in front of me - I guess I'm just a visual person rather than a thinking person!!!

[@jaapsch2]

Lovely to see a working electric Mercedes Euklid machine. I have a woriking handcranked version (model 29) and a non-working electric one (don't remember the model but it is like yours but a bit wider so probably a model 22) that I should get to at some point. Thank you for showing how it's supposed to work, which should help me with mine.

[@GrumpyTim]

Hi Jaap - I think it was when I first saw your model 29 that I quite fancied one for myself - they're a lovely looking machine - I wasn't too fussed if I got a model 29 or one of the other models so when my model 21 popped up for sale I jumped at the opportunity. It took a heck of a lot of freeing off, the oil had gone like glue and needed heat, solvent, patience and fresh oil to free everything off. Even once everything was freed off it still wouldn't work correctly - eventually I discovered something that was out of adjustment which was stopping the division from happening once the carriage had shifted to the right. Definitely worth the effort. I've just had a Madas 20LZVG arrive - it's in a terrible state but I'll see what I can do with it.

[@jaapsch2]

@@GrumpyTim That sounds like a horrendous effort. Amazing feat to get it working. Ages ago I mentioned I was working on a Madas BZS. It will appear on my channel and site very soon, and later I'll add an old Madas 12e. I did not get the BZS fully working, as I am too afraid to take it far enough apart to find the last few stuck bits. The multiplication bar is not working, but all the rest is. It has been by far the hardest job I've done. At least your LZVG does not have that multiplication functionality so it should be a bit easier. But still, be aware that it can be quite tricky to get the carriage seated back in place properly. Not only do you have to do it while the machine is tilted back so the carry switches don't get dislodged and block things, the pin driving the Z carry mechanism is tricky to get in place. Gerald Saudan's site madas.ch is a very nice resource. The last video on his second page of videos was especially useful as it shows how to disassemble the machine and remove the keyboard. He has written a beautiful book about them, too.

[@GrumpyTim]

Sorry for the slow reply to this message (I'd put a filter on so any messages with a link get held for review - then I forgot to check the held messages - oops!!!). My LZVG is coming along nicely so far - the biggest issues are from a previous owner using force to remove the carriage and free things off - I'm getting there slowly - most of the parts are just gummed up in the normal way, and without the multiplier, I can get to most areas fairly well. I've got Gerald's website in my favourites - I've already sent him my serial number to add to his database - as you say, it's a fantastic resource.

[@radiogagag9352]

Thank you for another excellent video and especially for explaining how subtractions works on this machine. I was not aware of doing it like a comptometer. Last week I just managed to acquire a Cellatron R 44 SM from 1975 which is my first proportional lever machine. And after getting the motor running again and fixing some corroded and stuck parts of the keyboard mechanism, I now start to explore its functionality and your video is a very helpful inspiration for me.

[@GrumpyTim]

Wow, the Cellatron R44 is such an impressive machine - you'll have lots of fun with that. Even once I'd unstuck everything on my machine, there were still a few bits that wouldn't work correctly - it was quite a while before I had it running as it should do.

[@radiogagag9352]

@@GrumpyTim My cellatrons last documented service was 1982 (as they wrote on the inside of the cover of the registers) and as far as I know it was in regular use until 1990 in an VEB (calculation of wages) in the GDR. With mine only the motor was ceased by old grease in its angled gear and bearings but despite of that and a view minor spots of corrosion on the keyboard mechanism the oil and grease in the machine was not very sticky. So, after a little bit of refreshment with Ballistol and letting it move though all functions a few times, all mechanisms recovered quickly. So probably one or two decades less of sitting and maybe improved oils in the 70s and 80s may have made the difference.

[@GrumpyTim]

Hmmm, thought I'd responded to this one - maybe I responded to someone else with a non sensical reply!!!!! What a fantastic find your Cellatron is - having that record of it's last service is great, and also that it was in use until 1990. I'm sure you're right that it will have benefitted from more modern oil and also less years sitting doing nothing. They're really exciting machines to use - I try to do most of my calculations using some form of mechanical calculator - using my phone just seems wrong!!!!!

[@radiogagag9352]

@@GrumpyTim Yeah, these machines have to be used for what they were made for…… I always have one of my machines on my office-desk and use them now and then. I try to change them regularly so that every machine keeps moving. I plan to do a short video of the callatron at some point in the future, when I will find the time. Until then I am looking forward to new videos to come on your channel.

[@GrumpyTim]

Cheers Radio GaGag, I've subscribed to your channel so I get a notification when you upload. I'll watch your Madas video later - I'm currently working on a Madas 20LZVG (which doesn't have the multiplier section but it'll be reasonably similar to your machine) - it looked in a terrible state when it arrived but it's not too bad inside, there's a few sticking parts and a previous owner appears to have used force to try to fix it so there's a few bent levers to straighten out but I'm pretty hopeful that it'll run again soon.....

[@IlFerroviere]

Thanks for all the fish! Wonderful machine.

[@GrumpyTim]

Hi Nicolo, it's pretty impressive isn't it!!! I think it's 1stSpyGuy who has one of the later Celletron machines with something like 20 columns. Well spotted "thanks for all the fish" :-)

[@IlFerroviere]

@@GrumpyTim I just saw the Cellotron, what a monster!

[@GrumpyTim]

@@IlFerroviere It's quite impressive isn't it!!!!

[@send2gl]

Incredible device

[@GrumpyTim]

Cheers Geoff, these old mechanical calculators are rather amazing things, and great fun to use too. I'm still surprised that I can pick them up for not a lot of money, although they nearly always need a few hours or days of attention to get them up and running again.

[@user-marco-S]

Since a few days, i have the same type of calculator. Needs a little cleaning and oil, but it is working. The red zero @4:24 is white on mine.

[@GrumpyTim]

Hi Marco S, well done for finding one of these, they're quite a machine!!! I guess they didn't paint the negative zeros red on all machines - mine was the only copy I'd seen, and I assumed that it would have been the same on all machines. You'll have lots of fun using this one.

[@bss1250]

Ive always found these machines interesting, between the appearance, the splittable keyboard, the mechanism, and the complementary subtraction they seem pretty different from anything else out there (that I know of anyway).

[@GrumpyTim]

I just loved the appearance, all those other features are a bonus. I'd love to have an Enigma machine, but that won't be happening, they're not exactly affordable. Mechanical calculators, although completely different, excite me in a similar way. I'd quite fancy a teletype machine one day but that's a bit of a big leap into the unknown.........

[@bss1250]

@@GrumpyTim Well if you cant get the real thing, building a replica enigma machine would certainly make an interesting video/series....

[@GrumpyTim]

I had thought about building an Enigma replica a few years ago, but I could see it either being a project that took over my life OR one that I never finished, so maybe I'll leave it for now. Maybe one day I'll retire and spend all my time in a shed making stuff..........

[@BensWorkshop]

Quite some machine.

[@GrumpyTim]

It's a bit of a beast - I meant to weigh it and say how heavy it is, but I forgot - it's bloomin' heavy anyway. They made bigger versions with more columns which would have been even more impressive but I'm kind of glad I got the one I did because a bigger one would need even more space!!!

[@BensWorkshop]

@@GrumpyTim always the problem with hobbies, lack of space.

[@GrumpyTim]

I guess you could walk into any house in the country and tell immediately if a hobby type of person lives there!!!!!

[@BensWorkshop]

@@GrumpyTim yes. I could do with a bigger shed...

[@markxxx21]

Funny how they chose only to 'automate' the division but not the multiplication.

[@GrumpyTim]

Yeah, it's kind of odd, although they did make other models that had automatic multiplication too. I guess out of the two features, multiplication is the easier one to carry out without automation so that's the one they left off on this "budget" machine (I bet it wasn't cheap though).

[@bss1250]

I think division is easier to implement that multiplication, for fully automatic multiplication you would either need a way to load the counter from the keyboard or a separate counter for multiplication. For division, you just need an extra mechanism to control the additions/subtractions and shifts (which would also be needed for multiplication), and a trip to detect overflow (but no real modifications to the registers). If you look at the fully automatic machines (like those from Friden, MADAS, and Monroe) they all have a extra register for multiplication

[@GrumpyTim]

Very good explanation from bss1250, cheers. My electric Lagomarsino machine has multiplier keys and even with that, there's the set of extra keys plus the extra multiplier counter inside the machine to increase the cost of manufacture - and on that machine it's not fully automatic, you even have to manually shift the carriage.