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Sterling Currency Calculators
Olivetti Summa Prima
& Electrosumma 22R
Olivetti Suma Prima Sterling add-listing machine.
Dates from the 1960s.
6 £ digits, shillings, and pence.
240 mm wide, 340 mm deep, 135 mm high (9.5" x 13.5" x 5.5"), 4.5 Kg (10 lbs.).
Note - By setting the left switch to "WN" the machine operates with Whole Numbers only using just the £ digits.
Olivetti Electrosumma 22-R Sterling add-listing machine.
225 x 380 x 195 mm (9" x 15" x 8").
Electrically powered.
Has 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 10, and 11 pence keys above the normal 10 keys. The black keys with the white spots enter the same number of zeros as the white spots.
From The Manager, May 64 - "Priced at £69 15s.... ... it totals up to one farthing under £10m. The machine also subtracts, multiplies by repeated fast addition and has what is described as a "static memory". This allows an amount to be held on the keyboard through a total or sub-total."
Olivetti were great proponents of small, elegent 10-key mechanical adding machines and calculators.
Their first adding machine, the "MC 4S Summa" was introduced in 1940, using pressure moulding, followed in 1941 by the "MC 4M Multisumma".
"The story of Olivetti is no less than the story of Italian industrial design. At one time or another every great Italian designer has worked in some capacity for the company... ."
"Mario Bellini (b. 1935) ... has collaborated continuously with Olivetti since 1963, working on their entire product range. Bellini's chief work for Olivetti has been the 'Programma' microcomputer (1965), the 'Logos' and 'Divisumma [18]' calculators (1973), ..."
"One of the greatest of all product designers, Marcello Nizzoli (1887-1969) was the first and most influential of designers to work for Olivetti, ... ... He went on to design a series of machines which have become 'classics' of modern industrial design: ... and the 'Divisumma 24' (1956)."
("The Conran Directory of Design", ed. Stephen Bayley, Octupus Conran, 1985).
