Walther WSR-160
1956 · Pinwheel · Work 421 of 1,871
A compact square pinwheel calculating machine in dark grey enamel, the setting drum recessed into the body with a fan of short levers across its face, a row of numeral windows along the carriage, each window showing the single digit 0, carriage shift keys at the front edge, a plain shield-shaped badge on the front of the body, a crank with a black grip on the right, every other surface plain dark grey enamel, standing on a dark baize-covered table before a deep neutral background, a single raking light from the left raking across the recessed drum.
- What it was used for
- A hand-cranked pinwheel four-function machine by Walther Büromaschinen GmbH of Niederstotzingen in Württemberg. Rechnerlexikon gives production as 1956 to 1968, the WSR 160's capacity as 10 x 8 x 16 places, its weight as 4.65 kg at 33 x 14 x 16 cm; the smaller WSR 110 worked to 6 x 6 x 11. The fittings included back-transfer from the result register and a carriage removable without tools. The Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum holds an example of 1958 and records that the maker called it a high-speed calculating machine and that it sold in large numbers. The same machine also ran as the Remington-Rand R540 and as the Muldivo-Mentor.
- What was new
- No new design - in 1956 the pinwheel was almost eighty years old, and the back-transfer was not new either: on Rechnerlexikon's account Original-Odhner already had it on the Model 27. What was new were conveniences, and one of them is dated: the fixed setting levers go back to patent DE 925432 by Otto Barthelmes of 1952. So the machine got its refinements late in the type's history; production ran out in 1968. And it was never only one machine: one works, three names - Walther, Remington-Rand, Muldivo.