![]() Kevin Twomey, a commercial and fine arts photographer, took these portraits of the Monroe PC-1421, along with many more mechanical calculators in Glusker’s collection. The rest of its operations were pretty basic-it could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. “If that cable ever snaps,” says Glusker, “you’ll have a hell of a time threading it back through.” Top view of the Monroe PC-1421, one of the only mechanical calculators to enable decimal point use. It was also one of few mechanical calculators with a decimal point button (many others required that users keep track of decimal points in their head). Dials controlled tiny cables-one of which wove directly through the heart of the machine-that set the decimal places for whatever numbers a user was computing. The Monroe PC-1421 had a “mechanical memory”-it could store an intermediate result during a lengthy calculation-and could print on paper, which most electronic calculators at the time couldn’t do. ![]() For instance, while early mechanical calculators required an operator to turn a crank by hand in order to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, later models, such as the Monroe PC-1421, turned automatically with a motor for each operation. To stay relevant, manufacturers fought to improve the speed of their mechanical machines by modifying existing features and adding new ones. With a price tag of $1,175-at the top end for a mechanical calculator-the Monroe PC-1421 debuted in 1964, right as electronic calculators were overtaking mechanical ones. And service bulletins came out every couple of weeks. Whenever the company came up with an improved part for the calculator-which contained thousands of pieces and frequently broke-it would send out a service bulletin, then dispatch service managers who would disassemble, reassemble, and recalibrate the entire device in order to incorporate the new part. To learn more about the calculator, Glusker tracked down a former service manager for the manufacturer who “recalled the machine with a mixture of awe and dread,” says Glusker. “When you’d read the specifications, you’d think, ‘That’s just crazy.’” Once he finally got his hands on the 40-pound behemoth from a retiring professor at the University of Iowa, it proved just as intricate as he’d imagined. “It’s kind of a holy grail machine for me,” says Glusker, a mechanical engineer and collector of early calculators (he has about 100). ![]() Mark Glusker had heard rumors about the mechanical calculator, a Monroe PC-1421, pictured above: that it was one the most complicated devices of the sort ever built that it was powerful but notoriously difficult to keep running that it was at the pinnacle of an effort to compete with the first electronic calculators. ![]() Remove the outer casing on the Monroe PC-1421, a 1964 mechanical calculator, and this is what you’ll find. ![]()
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