Talk:Adding machine

Replaced by Personal Computers in the 1990s
I find this claim very dubious as I have never seen an adding machine in use in an office. FWIU Adding machines were replaced in the 1970s by electronic calculators. I'd change that myself but my evidence is pretty anecdotal, but talking to people who entered the workforce in the 1970s in engineering and accounting, getting an electronic calculator was a very big deal at the time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jorbettis (talk • contribs) 20:32, 1 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I can't tell if you are talking about an pocket electronic calculator or a desktop electronic adding machine. Mechanical adding machines vanished like the dodo when electronic adding machines appeared. (The Mechanical calculator article states definitively that production ceased in the mid-1970s.) Electronic adding machines were worth the expense even in the smallest offices (whereas fax machines were "newfangled" and high tech, lol.) While electronic adding machines are technically calculators, the essential distinction is producing instantaneous accounting printouts on a small roll of paper. They are quick and convenient, requiring little training and have no external printer. The printouts accompany bundles of paper records (checks, etc), and electronic adding machines are still used and sold today. clip art: http://search.coolclips.com/m/vector/busi0252/Adding-machine/   In contrast, a PC and software package required someone with the knowledge to use it, and in 1990 was still a dubious business expense. Tkech (talk) 05:10, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

The stuff the article describes is old school
What eventually developed, and were prevalent for many years, weren't those full-keyboard hand operated things, but mechanical or electromechanical 10-key adding machines (mostly or exclusively with paper tape). You entered numbers just like on a calculator for addition and subtraction, and to multiply you did repeat addition by holding down the multiply key and counting the additions. I don't think any of them would divide. Eventually, there were even some that had a real multiply function, I think - I don't exactly know how it worked but I read a description of one once. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.112.18.175 (talk) 04:22, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

electronic adding machines should be added/featured?
There is likely some nifty wikipedia article addressing electronic adding machines, but that's what I came for and I can't find it. They are technically calculators but are not specially addressed on the Calculators page.

So it feels like this article should include electronic adding machines, and the distinctions between them and other electronic calculators. Mechanical adding machines are addressed here, but also covered by the Mechanical calculator article. There is also an Accounting machine article, which is mechanical but mostly just a list of manufacturers.

As I stated in a previous comment, a vital difference from a calculator is the accounting printout roll (discussed in and "Calculators vs Adding Machines" topic on the Museum of HP Calculators website http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv013.cgi?read=41153.)


 * A more significant difference between an electronic adding machine and an ordinary calculator is its "adding machine logic": RPN-like postfix logic for addition and subtraction (as on mechanical adding machines), but usually ordinary calculator logic for multiplication and division. Siealex (talk) 23:28, 22 October 2021 (UTC)

Possible sources for outlining the differences are https://sciencing.com/difference-between-adding-machine-calculator-6577047.html   Tkech (talk) 05:21, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

The large calculators with paper printouts are commonly referred to as adding machines, and these were still frequently seen even in the 1980s (at least).

Drsruli (talk) 07:34, 16 March 2022 (UTC)

why the numbers are 789 instead of 123 - Benford's Law
Benford's Law explains why adding machine number keypads are the way they are (AT&T's choice was directed by customer logic.) This is a question often asked and should be linked in this article, if nothing else. Tkech (talk) 05:26, 17 November 2017 (UTC)