Adding-listing machines -- Multiple or full keyboard type;

              46 HASKINS & SELLS June
Adding-Listing Machines—Multiple or
Full Keyboard Type
THIS type of adding machine may be
operated either by hand lever or by
electricity. Each row in the keyboard con­tains
all the figures from one to nine and
the number of keys depends on the capa­city
of the machine. On a machine with a
capacity of 9,999,999.99 there are 81 keys
arranged as follows:
9999999.99
8888888.88
7777777.77
6666666.66
5555555.55
4444444.44
3333333.33
2222222.22
1111111.11
It is easily seen that the setting of an
amount on the machine is extremely sim­ple.
No o key needs to be set, the machine
automatically prints them. A few figures
in an item can be set simultaneously, mak­ing
the process much faster than the
method of writing each figure.
More work has suggested itself to the
application of adding machines than to
any other type of office appliance on
account of the simplicity of operation.
However, one need only look into the
waste baskets of the average office to find
many useless adding machine lists. It is
not intended to make one believe that all
lists in waste baskets were of no use. The
average list of figures in books or on
sheets can be added quicker mentally than
by relisting them on an adding machine,
especially when the machine is stationed
at some distance from the clerk's desk.
The one disadvantage of the listing ma­chine
over the non-listing machine is that it
is slower. It takes just that much more
time to reach the handle and operate it for
printing individual items. The electrically
driven machine lessens the time.
Supervising the figure work done in an
office one must watch to see that the con­venience
offered by the machine is not ab­used.
There are, of course, many uses for
the lists and in such case the full value of
the machine is obtained. The routing of
figure work to machines requires study.
Full keyboard adding machines can
probably be best classified as follows:
Adding and Listing Machines.
Adding, Subtracting and Listing
Machines.
Duplex Adding and Listing Ma­chines.
Calculating Non-listing Ma­chines.
To these machines are added special
keys and other attachments with different
functions, among which are adding eighths
or twelfths directly. One company adver­tises
about five hundred combinations of
features.
These machines have but one set of
printing type but with movable carriages
of different widths they are adapted to tak­ing
sheets of paper with several columns
in any of which figures may be printed at
will. The forms, however, must be ruled
to conform with the machine spacing.
With the wide carnage one can readily
cross-foot figures but cannot cross-foot and
add several vertical columns simultaneous­ly,
as with some adding typewriters.
Special machines are really standard
parts assembled with one or more features
or attachments added to do some specific
class of work. The present day machine
indicates totals, sub-totals, and non-add
items by distinctive symbols. The duplex
machines with two sets of adding wheels,
indicate which items are added in - the
lower counter and which in the upper, and
which are transferred from the upper to
the lower counter. The star, indicating
that the machine is clear, was the first
symbol used and no doubt originated the
Visible
or
Blind
Generally with small
offset figures represent­ing
complements.