Comptometers - The Operators
As the Columbian Exposition opened on the Chicago midway in 1893, Felt & Tarrant's exhibit attracted throngs who marvelled at a machine that boasted it could "perform all arithmatical problems". While certainly true, the primary commercial value lie in its ability to perform high speed addition and, with the introduction of the A-model in 1904, efficient, accurate multiplication.
Felt soon realized that he would have to open his own schools, stock them with his machines and provide the quantity and quality of operators with the skills needed to run his Comptometers. Thus he created the partnership between operator and machine that would guarantee success over the coming decades.
In today's terms, the Compts were the hardware and they were the software. Martin tells us that these early "keyboardists" carried out between 50,000 and 200,000 keystrokes a day! And never a peep about carpel tunnel syndrome.
Bob De Cesaris, a long-time Compt collector relates...
| "I can vividly recall the first one I ever bought from a very elderly lady who was an operator. She clearly loved the machine and had kept it in wonderful condition. I had a discussion with her on exactly how she used it, problems, using 5 and 4 instead of 9, etc. She told me she felt very good about my buying it from her. I paid $25, set by her, no dickering from me. Her comments made my day. A week later she drove to my house (10 miles) to deliver the instruction booklet that she had found." |
Most of these operators are no longer with us and those who remain are in their 70s and 80s. This archive is dedicated to them, their memories and the memories of those who knew them.
