8 Mar
2013
8 Mar
'13
11:29 a.m.
Any early Burroughs experts here?
Yesterday I discovered a Burroughs "Style no. 3" adding machine in a
junk/antiques store (the kind of wonderful store where you have to dig
through stuff to get to more stuff, and when you get to that there's even
more stuff underneath/inside it :-)
Anyway, it's got the pedestal, side-desk and printing mechanism (at least I
assume that the gubbins at the back is a printer, although I couldn't
immediately see how it transfers to the paper - poss. just not visible with
the platen in the way). It seems to be basically the same as this one:
http://www.fi.edu/learn/sci-tech/adding-machine/adding-machine.php
... except:
1) it doesn't have the row of red/white keys across the top,
2) the desk on this one is much larger/nicer,
3) there's no ornate Burroughs script at the base of the keyboard area;
instead it says "Burroughs" and "center of type" above the keyboard,
4) the backing to the keyboard seems to be black (not green)
5) the keytop for the lower-left key on the keyboard is red (and a
little larger), not metal.
The mechanism seems free and cosmetically it's in pretty good shape,
considering that it's probably pushing 100 years in age - the main drawback
is that it's missing one of the '2' keys (the R/H side glass is cracked and
the rubber pads at the top of the pedestal have disintegrated, but both of
those problems should be solvable).
Immediate questions:
1) Any idea of age? s/n is 27434. I'm leaning toward 1906 as that seems to
be when the no. 3 showed up, and by October of that year there had been
some 40,000 of them built - but that's assuming that the serial numbers
don't carry across all models. I'm surprised if they built that many of
them before they were rendered obsolete by a newer model, though.
2) The lack of '2' key is really the main thing stopping me from bringing
this thing home. I expect they're common to many early Burroughs machines;
is anyone known to carry parts from junk machines, or has anyone succeeded
in creating a reproduction key using modern materials?
cheers
Jules
8 Mar
8 Mar
12:49 p.m.
On 2013 Mar 8, at 11:29 AM, Jules Richardson wrote:
Any early Burroughs experts here?
Yesterday I discovered a Burroughs "Style no. 3" adding machine in
a junk/antiques store (the kind of ...
1) Any idea of age? s/n is 27434. I'm leaning toward 1906 as that
seems to be when the no. 3 showed up, and by October of that year
there had been some 40,000 of them built - but that's assuming that
the serial numbers don't carry across all models. I'm surprised if
they built that many of them before they were rendered obsolete by
a newer model, though.
2) The lack of '2' key is really the main thing stopping me from
bringing this thing home. I expect they're common to many early
Burroughs machines; is anyone known to carry parts from junk
machines, or has anyone succeeded in creating a reproduction key
using modern materials?
Looks like you're age estimate is pretty good. According to the
following site, that serial # would be 1904 - 1906:
http://home.ix.netcom.com/~hancockm/when_was_it_made.htm
On the home page they ask "Need a key?", but it turns out they mean
the key to open the case.
Probably worth asking at sites like that though.
I was working on a few mechanical machines recently and someday I
have to rebuild a couple of them, but I'm no expert on mech calcs.
On the page you listed, they mentioned the "oil-filled dash-pot". I
had to open one of these (hydraulic damper) to rebuild it a couple of
weeks ago - what remained of the 70-odd-year-old oil was pretty vile.
3:26 p.m.
On 03/08/2013 02:49 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
On 2013 Mar 8, at 11:29 AM, Jules Richardson wrote:
Thanks - I'd not stumbled across that site before, and it looks rather
useful (and hopefully the guy is contactable, given the '06 "last update")
The "Age by Serial Number" page is quite precise and seems to say January
6th of 1905.
Any early Burroughs experts here?
Yesterday I discovered a Burroughs "Style no. 3" adding machine in a
junk/antiques store (the kind of ...
1) Any idea of age? s/n is 27434. I'm leaning toward 1906 as that seems
to be when the no. 3 showed up, and by October of that year there had
been some 40,000 of them built - but that's assuming that the serial
numbers don't carry across all models. I'm surprised if they built that
many of them before they were rendered obsolete by a newer model, though.
2) The lack of '2' key is really the main thing stopping me from bringing
this thing home. I expect they're common to many early Burroughs
machines; is anyone known to carry parts from junk machines, or has
anyone succeeded in creating a reproduction key using modern materials?
Looks like you're age estimate is pretty good. According to the following
site, that serial # would be 1904 - 1906:
http://home.ix.netcom.com/~hancockm/when_was_it_made.htm On the home page they ask "Need a key?", but
it turns out they mean the key
to open the case.
Yes :-(
There's actually a FAQ about keytops: "Keytops are quite difficult to
obtain and about the only source is another, more unsalvageable machine."
Hardly surprising, really. I'm not sure how difficult a reproduction would
be to make - either carving from scratch, machining via a 3D process, or
casting from a mold taken from one of the surviving '2' keys. For the
amount of use the machine will ever get (compared to what it was designed
for) it doesn't matter if the replacement isn't as robust, and even getting
the color spot-on isn't too critical given that there's a certain patina of
age which makes all the keys a very slightly different shade anyway.
Getting the shape right is the critical thing...
Probably worth asking at sites like that though.
Yep :)
I was working on a few mechanical machines recently
and someday I have to
rebuild a couple of them, but I'm no expert on mech calcs.
No, nor me. Slow and methodical and take lots of photos... but at least the
mech isn't completely jammed up on this one, so it may well "just work"
(apparently the owner of the store has run it before, but I've no idea how
many years since then it's sat there)
On the page you listed, they mentioned the
"oil-filled dash-pot". I had to
open one of these (hydraulic damper) to rebuild it a couple of weeks ago -
what remained of the 70-odd-year-old oil was pretty vile.
I'm sure!
cheers
Jules
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