The portable adding machine seems like a bit of a misnomer when it arrives at a hefty 20 pounds and

The portable adding machine seems like a bit of a misnomer when it arrives at a hefty 20 pounds and no carrying case like what could be found with many typewriters. But it certainly is an improvement over the 100 pounds that their predecessors could be. Previously, the adding machine would be a stationary device, sometimes on a wheeled iron stand, that would remain at the business. With the reduction of the weight to 20 pounds, Burroughs started to advertise that the machines could be moved from office to office, and from office to home, to say the workforce could now work more freely and restrictively. I happen to have 2 different models of the Burroughs Portable, one from pre WW2, evidenced by its serial number and style, and one post WW2, evidenced the same way. As fashions changed at the turn of the century, Burroghs adapted its product to fit the fashions as they changed into the 60’s. However, as compact and handy as these machines are, they were not a match to the electric variants (which could be smaller, faster, and simpler to use) or hold a candle to the emerging all solid state electronic calculators. By the mid to late 70’s these machines had stopped production and started collecting dust in attics. Too expensive and important to get rid of, but not practical enough to keep around. Many are found in attics today as people continue to clean out their storage. My earlier model is a clear example of having been forgotten about. Caked in a layer of dust, and an ink spool becoming the new home to a mud wasp (who had long since perished in his abode), these machines are interesting relics to how business used to be done. These machines were in their times, appliances. No where close to the disposable 4 function calculators found in stores today. These complex machines were designed, and then carefully crafted, manufactured and assembled to make fashionable workplace certerpieces. With the portable variants, a leap forward to the disposable nature of caluclation that we have today. It is important to reflect on how the nature of calculation has changed culturally since the advent, and cheap availablity of the microchip. From tedious hand calculation on pencil and paper, to these adding machines, and then their improvements, we have continued on a path where the ability to use technology to do our calculations for us is almost a given. Will our math teachers be wrong? Will we not always have a calculator in our pockets? Will we phase out the emphasis in our education on preforming these menial calculations, in favor of technical literacy for getting machines to do it for us? Lets talk about how machines are slowly, but surely, augmenting our capabilities, and in ways, replacing the need for certain roles in society. -- source link
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