Pictures Thomas

“In 1821Charles Xavier Thomas of Colmar (1785-1870) submitted to the Sociėtė d'Encouragement pour L'Industrie Nationale in Paris a calculating machine he had constructed, which he called an arithmometer.

Thomas is usually thought of as the founder of the calculating machine industry because Parson Hahn's efforts probably did not yet amount to an industry since he and his collaborators manufactured only a relatively limited number of their calculating machines. Thomas devoted himself to this branch of industry up to the time of his death, and he raised this industry, over a period of several decades, to a rather high level. In fact, up to the time when the calculating machine industry was introduced into Germany by Arthur Burkhardt ( 1878). the Thomas workshop was the only firm in this line and supplied the whole world with its products. We know, for instance, that the Thomas workshop completed five hundred machines from 1821 to 1865, three hundred machines from 1865 to 1870, four hundred machines from 1871 to 1875, and three hundred machines from 1876 to 1878.

Of course, Thomas never manufactured the machines himself, rather he contracted out this aspect of the business. In the 1870’s , A. M. Hoart was engaged in their manufacture in the house of the Insurance Company Soleil. Later the manufacture was transferred to L. Payen. As of 1920, Aph. Darras, Paris manufactures the arithmometer in France with 12, 16, and 20 places in the result mechanism.”

The Thomas machine was the basis of many other machines: Burkhardt, Bunzel, Saxonia, Austria, Tate-Layton, Peerless, TIM, Archimedes,…

Valéry Monnier maintains a web site dedicated to the Thomas arithmometer. It carries machines inventory with many pictures, patent information and their explanation. In addition it shows examples of arithmometers based on the Thomas machine.

Other links for the Thomas arithmometers:

- A short overview can be found on the "The History of Computing Project".

- Stephen Johnston's article "Making the Arithmometer Count" describes the development in it's historical context

- see also the attached document for some historic aspects

Thomas

- the English patent from 1851 with descriptions, operational procedures and nice drawings is provided by Andries de Man on this web site.

- A working model of an Arithmomèter by Thomas (design end of 19th century) can be found on Stephan Weiss web-page.

Arithmometre (Thomas) user manual 1884 (in French , 22 MB)) , source: Valéry Monnier

Thomas, 1822

The 1820 machine had a ribbon to pull (instead of a crank as later models), a second set of result display for subtraction and division and - most important - a multiplication gear, set by the first slider from left, which allowed the "multiple add" by one "pull". Only clearance of the single result digits.

principle	stepped drum
capacity	3 x x 6
input	sliders
prod. years	1822
mach. built	1 (Smithsonian), maybe 2
features
dimensions
weight
known s/n
price
	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source:

Thomas, 1848

In the 1848 machine, the ribbon was replaced by a crank at the front side. It still has the multiplication gear. The second set of result displays is gone, the switch from addition / multiplication to subtraction / division was done by a butterfly switch. Internally, the stepped drum was reduced from 18 to 9 teeth.

french patent Nr. 8282 (25.04.1849)

principle	stepped drum
capacity	5 x x 10
input	sliders
prod. years	1848
mach. built	1 sure
features
dimensions
weight
known s/n
price
	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source:

Thomas, 1850

french patent Nr. 10990 (08.12.1850); english patent Nr. 13504

principle	stepped drum
capacity	5 x x 10 and 8 x x 16
input	sliders
prod. years	1850 - .......
mach. built	< 100
features	total zeroing
dimensions
weight
known s/n
price
	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source:

Thomas, 1852

starting with this model the multiplicator is eliminated

principle	stepped drum
capacity	5 x x 10 , 6 x x 12 , 8 x x 16
input	sliders
prod. years	1852 - .......
mach. built	< 150
features
dimensions
weight
known s/n	45 to 190
price
	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source: Deutsches Museum, München; photo: W.Szrek

Thomas, 1855

french exhibition of 1855

principle	stepped drum
capacity	15 x 16 x 30
input	sliders
prod. years	1854 - 1855
mach. built	< 150
features
dimensions
weight
known s/n
price
	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source: IBM

Thomas, 1860

switch from add/mult to sub/div by 2 push buttons

principle	stepped drum
capacity	6 x 7 x 12 / 8 x 9 x 16
input	sliders
prod. years	1858 - 1863
mach. built	< 80
features
dimensions
weight
known s/n	14 to 52
price
	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source:

Thomas, 1863

cheap model

principle	stepped drum
capacity	5 x x 10
input	sliders
prod. years	1863 - 1864
mach. built	< 80
features
dimensions
weight
known s/n	502 to 548
price
	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source:

Thomas, 1865

french patent Nr. 68923 (30.09.1865)

principle	stepped drum
capacity	6x7x12 / 8x9x16 / 10x11x20
input	sliders
prod. years	1865 - 87
mach. built	< 2000
features
dimensions
weight
known s/n	581 to 2323
price
	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source: M.E.Castro Santana

demo

original Thomas, s/n 1316; later modified by Payen and renumbered to 5009

principle	stepped drum
capacity
input	sliders
prod. years
mach. built
features
dimensions
weight
known s/n
price
	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source: V.Monnier

Payen

when Thomas died in 1870, his son Thomas de Bojano continued manufacturing for several years.

after that, Payen - who was the technical person - manufactured and sold the machines under his own name.

principle	stepped drum
capacity
production years
machines built
features





	for bigger and more pictures, click on the picture
		source: V.Monnier

last updated: 30-Mrz-12