Typewriter Talk / Electro-Mechanical Calculators

**Posted by Pete E.** 13-8-2022 10:29:59

The little Facit fellows heard that a new machine joined their home.

The Olympia Model AM calculating machine case is a perfect fit for the new-to-me Facit Model 1208 electro-mechanical calculator.

The very nice conditioned Olympia AM machine was dead-on-arrival. Burned out motor and several plastic drive gears and sprockets were cracked and in pieces. This Olympia machine/case was a $ 1.98 eBay win...and I was really only after the case. This Olympia machine was full of plastic drive and impact parts. Whereas those same parts in the Facit were metal, brass, etc.

My Facit Model 1208 fits so well in the case...my Nikon FM 35mm camera and lenses will have to wait their turn.

The Facit 1208 just needed a good cleaning and a bit of lube on some drive components. It works perfectly and now just waits a fresh ribbon. It did print out in both black and red (for negative values) with its dried out ribbon and does addition and subtraction really easily and can even do multiplication but with a few more finger-gymnastics with on the key-tops and some 2-handed operations. This model was not designed to to division or percentages.

I will post up a photo of the Facit 1208 along side my Facit T2 typewriter in the next day or so when I rotate out some typers.

The 2-sided user-guide cleaned up well. I scanned it digitally and laminated the guide in plastic.
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**Posted by Maschinengeschrieben** 13-8-2022 17:40:44

With a trick 2-species adding machines can also multiply.
Here is a video on the matter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzUSOc3XtJI&t=775s

Its in German but perhaps it'll be informative despite.

**Posted by Maschinengeschrieben** 13-8-2022 17:47:47

Essentially the "trick" is to just split the multiplication.
210 x 43 would be the flowing in your adding machine:
210 x 4 followed by printing the intermittent result then,
2100 x 3 followed by the end total.

For higher divisors simply add another 0. Its very simple.

**Posted by Pete E.** 13-8-2022 18:39:07

Thanks Gerd, for your inputs.

Here are the written instructions for multiplications for the Facit 1208, from the original user-guide.

Once I get fresh ribbon on the machine, I will try it again.
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**Posted by Maschinengeschrieben** 13-8-2022 19:02:55

I mixed up the 3 & 4 in my post (sadly no editing here) but what you show here is exactly what I described.
But honestly I think in practice a pinwheel calculator is better suited for anything more then adding & subtracting. Or just in general. These adding machines make nice display pieces tho, & are very satisfying to use. Ive been tempted to get another few more then once, but will keep it at the 1 for now.

**Posted by Pete E.** 14-8-2022 21:13:40

Have this nice Hermes Model 161-12 on its way to our home. $ 18 USD plus another $ 20 for S&H.

It comes with a vinyl dust cover. Everything works but seller did not have paper and no metal ribbon spools.

I found a NOS box of these metal spools and even ribbon for $ 9 total. And I have a paper roll spindle in my spare parts (from the Olympia machine that was trashed and which I parted out).

Should have this one home in a week or so. More photos when it gets the spa-day on my work bench.
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**Posted by Pete E.** 25-8-2022 14:45:30

All Hermes machines from the 1960's. All fully functional.
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**Posted by Pete E.** 31-8-2022 17:49:41

Hermes calculating machine all cleaned up and serviced.

New metal spindle for the paper roll arrived from Switzerland.

New metal ribbon spools are on the machine but the NOS ribbon is dry as the Mojave desert. Will wind up some new silk typewriter, tomorrow, when the garage is cool in the morning.
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**Posted by fountainpensplus** 31-8-2022 19:23:18

It looks 'better than new' Pete!

**Posted by Pete E.** 01-9-2022 07:24:43

Hi George,

I really like using Flitz polish on smooth paint-works.

This one was a bit dull and rough to the touch (which I think is just the surface oxidized a bit). I took off the key-tops and polished them up, as well.

The internals just needed a good blow-out (lots of paper dust and ribbon bits), some denatured alcohol to flush out some old grease, and some new Tri-flow grease here and there.

The mechanical internals are a bit heart-stopping for me. So much happening in such a small space. My hat is off to the skilled & trained folks that can actually repair these.

I am not one of them. But with a good service and this one is running fine.

It even has a 1.25 amp glass-fuse holder to protect the induction motor which was blowing when the machine ran while dirty. It now no longer blows a fuse.

It even prints out in red when a number is negative (deficit).