Arithmeum adds to collection Calculator made for Tsar Nicholas comes to Bonn
Bonn · The Arithmeum in Bonn has obtained one of three existing examples by the French inventor Charles Xavier Thomas. It was easy to use and very robust.
In spring 2017, a calculator came onto the market that had been in a French private collection for nearly four decades. On the inside of the lid of the magnificently designed wooden box is the inscription: “To his Majesty Nicholas I. – Emperor of all Russia – an honourable tribute from the inventor.” Before 1851, Charles Xavier Thomas, the wealthy owner of Insurance de Soleil, had only made a few calculators. One of these will, as reported, be in the Bonn Arithmeum from the middle of this week.
With the support of the Minister for Culture and Science of NRW, Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, the States Culture Foundation and the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation, the Bonn University Museum will obtain the Thomas arithmometer dedicated to Tsar Nicholas I, developed by Thomas in 1851.
After he filed the first patent for a calculator for all four main arithmetic operations in 1820, he was so occupied for nearly thirty years with the formation of his insurance company, one of the first and most successful in France, that he first began with improvements and ideas for the mass production of the arithmometer in 1850.
Thomas, who was a very successful businessman, first presented his calculator to a wider public at the Great Exhibition in 1851. His aim was to make the first mass produced calculator. To improve their marketing, he gave the noble houses of his era examples dedicated to them.
There are only three known examples of this series, of which, alongside the arithmometer for Tsar Nicholas I, only one other is in its original condition.
Calculators were not used in practice at that time. Charles Xavier Thomas wanted to change this. Only a short time after his dedication models and after only one further development model, he had a model that could be mass produced. The machines were accurate with ingenious mechanics. They were easy to use and extremely robust and were the model for the first German calculator production in the nineteenth century in Glashütte.
The arithmometer made for Tsar Nicholas I was completely restored by experts in the Arithmeum so it can be preserved and displayed in good condition and full working order.
The Thomas’s calculator is a particular gem in the Arithmeum’s collection. With more than 10,000 exhibits, it is by far the most comprehensive and complete collection of historical calculating instruments in the world.
Original text: ga.de. Translation: Kate Carey.
