Brunsviga

Brunsviga Brunsviga is a calculating machine company whose history goes back to 1892 with devices upgrading from mechanical to electrical thereafter. The firm Grimme & Natalis that manufactured the machines changed their name into Brunsviga Maschinenwerke" in 1927.

Origins

The Brusvinga device finds its roots in the arithmometer developed by Willgodt Theophil Odhner (1845 -1905), a Swedish engineer who emigrated to Russia for work purposes in 1868 or 1869 after having studied mechanics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Odhner was hired by his fellow Swede Ludvig Nobel (Albert Nobel’s brother) who was at the head of an important Arms Factory. His job there was to fix the so-called Thomas Arithmometers4, named after their designer in the 1820s. The term arithmometer covered mechanical calculating devices that were able to perform all the four arithmetic operations. Odhner improved and simplified the expensive devices by implementing a different transmission system5.

Beginnings

In 1878, as he tried to expand his business, Odhner partnered with Karl Königsberger6,7, a commercial advisor and merchant in the guild of Saint-Petersburg. The latter filed patents in numerous countries including Germany with the German patent n° 7393.11 on November 19th 18788. In 1892, one of the top executives of the German’s sewing machine firm Grimme & Natalis buyed Odhner’s patent8 for his device. The idea here was to use the same production tools for both sewing and calculating machines. The patent included distribution rights in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland8 and the calculating machines were launched under the brand’s name “Brunsviga”, in reference to the city of Brunswick9, where the firm Grimme & Natalis was based.

Types of Brunsviga calculating devices

The first device, the “A” type, was launched in July 1892 under the name Brunsviga8 and resembled Odhner’s devices. Multiples modifications on design as well as abilities were made afterwards by the engineer Franz Trinks, who was then head executive of Brunsvinga. In the twenty years to follow, 89 german patents and 152 of other countries’ were filed based on his inventions1. Some machines were now able to perform simultaneously multiple operations (not more than three), as did the Trinks-Triplex10, launched right before World War I whose 19 typing levers could display results as long as 20 numbers. As for the Brunsviga Novas11, their launching occurred around 1925, same year as the Brunsviga 13. In 1929, Franz Trinks developed his last model, the Brunsviga Dupla12 which happened to be electrical. He died in 1931. In 1952 60 years after the first model, 60 different types were available on the market and the firm accounted for 265.000 sales8.

A pioneer

In 1952, Brunsviga Maschinenwerke AG employed a thousand people. Between 1926 and 1930, after launching Nova and type 13, 40.000 devices were produced equalizing the production in numbers of nearly 30 years between 1892 and 19215. According to Peter Faulstich in his article, the name Brunsviga was used for fifty years to refer to calculating machines.

Reasons for success An adequate response to market needs

In 1872, in a specialized journal, the conditions for calculating machines to meet market needs were written as follows : « If a reliable calculating machine could be manufactured to retail at a low price, say five dollars, with which addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division could be done, it would no doubt find a ready- sale, as all go-ahead business men want such a time-saver.... 13 ». By streamlining their production under the guidance of Herman Hoffmeister14 (1886-1930), Brunsviga was able to support mass production at reasonable cost of devices meeting market needs5. The company also worked on reducing the weight and dimensions of their final product to facilitate the dispatch by launching miniature series (A,B and J) or other compact models such as the Brunsviga 13, allowing them as well to reduce selling prices5. Simultaneously, in the early 1920s, numerous sectors such as Insurance companies, Statistics, Geodesy, Astronomy or Engineering5 implemented the use of the calculating machine into their calculation processes. Even more broadly, every sector with a requirement for precise calculation processes, found itself in need for calculating machines. The brutal population growth and even bigger demands in the matter of economical calculation implied such calculations to be done quickly and at rational costs8.

A dense and international distribution network The market penetration of the brand went along the filing of numerous patents. Before 1915, Germany only accounted for more than a hundred patents, and 200 others were filed internationally. In 1906, Brunsviga’s sales agents were based in London, Paris, Stockholm, Conception, Buenos Aires, Sao Paol and Johannesburg. The company now had branch offices in the Netherlands and in Denmark5. In 1931, adding to the 30 offices in Germany, 90 more opened their doors in foreign countries5.

Some Efficient Marketing strategies In 1909, the company introduced the catchy tagline « the brain of steel » alongside an illustration from fellow Brunswick native mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. In the late 1920s, the graphist Günther Clausen (1885- 1954) chose to modify the drawing of the head, and the tagline read « calculate everything ».

Alongside marketing strategies, the firm made good use of specialized magazines16 as well as the press to tout the use of calculating machines : the Manchester Guardian for instance, showed an image of a worker with his Brunsviga. Artists too were sought to publish in the monthly company magazine. For the twenty years anniversary of Brunsviga in 1912, a brochure was published under the title « When calculating machines have a heart », whose author, Fritz Müller later republished as a short story. 17. The Painter and graphist from Brunswick Karl Bock (1873-1940) created the cover of the brochure while Austrian artist August Mandlick (1860-1934) took care of the illustations5. Lastly, the writer Abraham Halberthal (1881-1969) under the pseudonym A. Halbert, published short stories in the company monthly magazine to present the calculating machine5.

Renowned scientists and collectors using the Brunsviga machine Lots of great scientists worked with the Brunsviga. Amongst them, Enrico Fermi used it at the very beginning of his work on nuclear chain reaction18, but also Karl Pearson19 , Stephen Wilson20, or Sydney Holt21 . Some Brunsviga machines can also be found in museums such as the model C22 at the Smithsonian. The Henri Poincaré Institute also owns one23. DeclineIn 1959, the company Olympia Werke took full control of Brunsviga Maschinenwerke AG. Shortly after, in 1962, most of the existing models (11S, 11E, 16E, 13BR, 18 RK, D 18 R, D13 R/1 D13 R2) saw their production stopped. The only remaining on the market up until 1963 were the 13RK, B20 and B183. The 13RM, from the old range remained available up until 196424. As for the RT4 (1970-1971) that was made in Spain, it was the last device launched by Olympia but as a limited edition counting only around 1500 copies25. In 1972, Olympia stopped for good the production of mechanical calculating devices25.