"What else have you got?" said he.
"An adding machine," replied young Felt doubtfully, "but it's over to my room—and it won't add."
"Go get it."
The macaroni box was brought to Mr. Lawther, who fed it a couple of sums and was amazed to see it produce the correct answer.
"Why don't you make one of metal?" said he.
"I haven't any money."
"I'll lend you the money."
"I haven't any place to work."
"I'll fit up a corner in the shop."
The First Comptometer
Just thirty-nine years ago, on Thanksgiving Day, 1887, the first Comptometer was begun. It's a long step from that crude wooden box model to the present-day model "J".
The very next week Dorr E. Felt was established among some new lathes and drills in a corner all by himself, and there for a year or more, he grappled with difficulties that were almost inconceivable. Finally out of the tangle all the nine hundred little parts got together and agreed to work in harmony. Mr. Felt now began to set his traps for the weary bookkeeper.
With joy in his heart and the first Comptometer under his arm, he sallied forth to the conquest. The first bookkeeper squared off and saluted him with a stony stare.
"What do I want of that thing?" he demanded. "I learned to add when I was five years old. Go 'way—I'm busy. 5-7-15-21-30-36 an' 7's 43. 4 to carry. 9-13"—etc., etc., ad infinitum—sometimes ad midnight. Such was the love for menial labor in those early days! Do you remember how our grandfathers used to love the quill pen and the hour glass? Anyway, it took Mr. Felt just two years eleven months and six days to sell the first hundred machines. But these, be it noted, were the first key-operated adding machines to be manufactured and sold in this country.
In 1888 and 1889 Mr. Felt got inveigled into the problem of listing machines. Others had tried to solve it without success. It was sort of a challenge to the intellect. He finally perfected the Comptograph—the first successful listing machine, and a machine of no small distinction.
Summarizing: Mr. Felt's Comptometers were the pioneers of the key-driven adding and calculating machines. His Comptographs were the pioneers of keyboard listing adding machines. Some of the first machines of both models are still in practical service today after the lapse of more than a third of a century.
