Jaap's Mechanical Calculators Page

Walther

Walther RMKZ Walther WSR 160


Walther RMKZ
   Video
Walther WSR-160
   Video
History
Models
Books and Manuals
Promotional material
Articles and Advertisements
Patents
Links


Walther RMKZ

The Walther RMKZ is a calculator based on the classic Odhner pinwheel calculator design. My machine is in fairly good working condition. It does however have some damage, namely the part of the body holding the crank handle has cracked and one of the input display digit wheels is damaged slightly. The latter is purely cosmetic damage, the former does not interfere with the working of the machine.

At some point, possibly in the 1950s, it has been refurbished, and its original black paint was changed to a metallic hammer grey enamel. This enamel is chipped at the left edge of the carriage, but otherwise looks very good.

Its serial number is 10,890. Until about 1933 the input display registers of the RMK and RMKZ were in a module attached on top of the machine. In 1936 the serial numbers were above 20,000 (I think the numbering was restarted from that point). So my machine is therefore probably from between 1933 and 1936.

The rear panel has stamped in it the writing "CARL WALTHER, Abt. Rechenmaschinen, ZELLA-MEHLIS Thün".

Walther RMKZ
Walther RMKZ, top view
Walther RMKZ, right view
Walther RMKZ, left view
Walther RMKZ, rear view
Walther RMKZ, serial number
Walther RMKZ, text
Walther RMKZ, inside view
Walther RMKZ, broken crank rest

Video

In this video I demonstrate how to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.


Walther WSR-160

The Walther WSR-160 is the last model pinwheel calculator that Walther made. It was in production from about 1956 until 1968 or possibly 1971. It was also sold using other brand names, for example in Great Britain it was called the Muldivo Mentor. My machine is in working condition, although one of the input pins is hard to move.

Compared to the RMKZ there are several improvements in its design:

Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160

Its serial number is 194,935 which means it was probably made in around 1967. The label in the back says Walther Büromaschinen G.m.b.H., Niederstotzingen/Wttbg., with the model and serial number. The serial number can also be found on the carriage.

Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160
Walther WSR 160

Video

In this video I demonstrate how it works, including two methods of division.


History

Carl Walther GmbH is a German company better known for making weapons such as the Walther PPK that James Bond is so fond of. Carl Walther founded his company in 1886, making hunting rifles and selling them in his gunshop in Zella-Mehlis. From 1908 the company started making pistols instead of rifles. Carl died in 1915, and from then on the company was run by one of his sons, Fritz Walther.

The treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I severely restricted arms manufacturing and trade, so Walther had to diversify. In 1924 they started producing calculators. This came about in cooperation with Mercedes, who had a factory in Suhl just a few kilometres away from Zella Mehlis. Mercedes made pinwheel calculators under the Melitta brand, but wanted to focus their production on the Mercedes-Euklid type of machine. Walther then took over the production of the Melitta calculators, and were allowed to sell them under the Walther brand name, too. Soon they started developing them further, including electrically driven models. In 1931 they also manufactured the Tasma, an adding-listing machine with a full keyboard which had until then been made by Thales, though it seems this was never sold under the Walther brand name.

The Walther factory was destroyed in the second world war, no doubt due to its arms manufacturing activities. Zella-Mehlis was in the Soviet-occupied region of Germany, and Fritz Walther decided it was better to rebuild the company and factory in the Allied-occupied region. He and some of his engineers settled in Heidenhelm, where they set up a basic workshop. In about 1947 they were ready to set up a factory to manufacture calculators in the nearby town of Gerstetten and then another in Niederstotzingen. A few years later in 1953 the company had grown enough to restart the arms manufacturing in a new factory Ulm, at which point the calculator business was split off as a separate company, Walther Büromaschinen GmbH.

From 1952 they also started making electrically driven, 10-key adding-listing machines, such as the Walther SR-12. This machine was also sold in the USA by Felt & Tarrant under the name Comptograph 202. Fritz Walther died in December 1966, and was succeeded by his son Karl-Heinz Walther. By the late 1960s the WSR-160 was the only remaining pinwheel model still in production, but its end date is somewhat uncertain (some sources say 1968, others 1971). The other desk calculators became more electronic, and remained in production until the mid 1970s. The Walther Büromaschinen company went public and then became Walther Electronic AG, and later specialised in scanning and sorting machines under the name Walther Data GmbH.


Models

The data for the table below is mostly taken from the two sites Rechnerlexikon and Rechenmaschinen Illustrated. Unfortunately, their information sometimes contradicts each other, and then I have chosen whichever data seems more plausible.

Walther made many models of pinwheel calculators, and this list is possably not complete. The letters in the model name have the following meanings:
M - has a larger input register (10 instead of 6 digits).
K - has a display showing the input number
Z - has a carry mechanism in the revolution counter and a subtraction switch.
D - has automatic division
E - electrically powered
W - back transfer mechanism (copies accumulator into input).

ModelYearsKnown S/N rangeDigitsRemarks
Walther 1 1926-19271,482-2,8929x8x13
Walther 2
Walther 3
Walther EM 1927-1928?7,90710x8x13Revolution counter does have carry mechanism
Walther EMKD 1929-19459,497-30,48110x8x13/16Revolution counter does have carry mechanism
Walther R 1929-1938?18,9256x6x10
Walther RK 1929-1938?4,484-16,4636x6x10
Walther RM 1929?-1938?3,598-7,961 & 21,010-22,46210x8x13/16
Walther RMK 1929?-1938?3,911-16,09910x8x13/16
Walther RMKZ 1931-19456,769-39,89110x8x13/16
Walther RMZ 1933-1938?11,814-16,09210x8x13/16
Walther RKZ 1933-1938?17,428-27,1696x6x10
Walther DMKZ 1933-193812,155-14,27010x8x13
Walther DRKZ 1933-193617,272-17,2746x6x10
Walther SMKZ 1933-193621,053-21,05810x8x13Second storage accumulator on carriage.
 
Walther RMKZ 1948-195751,798-81,50510x8x13/16
Walther RKZ-10 1949-195253,788-108,2466x6x10
Walther WR 10 1952-195470,170-71,3986x6x10
Walther WR 16 1952-195460,356-63,60210x8x16
Walther WSR 11 1955-1957120,123-121,4196x6x11
Walther WSR 16 1955-1957102,253-113,97410x8x16
Walther WSR 1101956-1968?115,633-116,1736x6x11
Walther WSR 1601956-1968?129,557-222,71310x8x16

Adding machines are not included in the list above.


Books and Manuals

Bedienungsanleitung Schnellrechenmaschine WSR 16 und WSR 11    (PDF, 14.3 MB or archive.org)
Walther-Büromaschinen GmbH
1955?
19 page booklet
148mm × 209mm × 1mm

German manual for the Walther WSR 16 und WSR 11 pinwheel calculators. These models were made from about 1955 till 1957.

Bedienungsanleitung Schnellrechenmaschine WSR 16 und WSR 11
Bedienungsanleitung Schnellrechenmaschine WSR 16 und WSR 11
Bedienungsanleitung Schnellrechenmaschine WSR 16 und WSR 11
Bedienungsanleitung Schnellrechenmaschine WSR 16 und WSR 11

Montage-Anleitung für Walther Rechenmaschinen Mod. WSR 110/160    (PDF, 8.85 MB or archive.org)
Metallwarenfabrik J. A. Heinrich Dankers
1960
18 page booklet
148mm × 205mm × 1mm

This booklet shows how to fully disassemble the Walther WSR 110/160, so that all the parts can be thoroughly cleaned.

Montage-Anleitung fuer Walther Rechenmaschinen Mod. WSR 110/160
Montage-Anleitung fuer Walther Rechenmaschinen Mod. WSR 110/160
Montage-Anleitung fuer Walther Rechenmaschinen Mod. WSR 110/160
Montage-Anleitung fuer Walther Rechenmaschinen Mod. WSR 110/160

Bedienungsanleitung Comptess Walther-Addiermaschine    (PDF, 3.99 MB or archive.org)
Walther-Büromaschinen GmbH
1964?
8 page booklet
148mm × 209mm

Short German manual for the Walther Comptess adding machine. This machine was first produced in about 1964.

Bedienungsanleitung Walther Comptess Addiermaschine
Bedienungsanleitung Walther Comptess Addiermaschine
Bedienungsanleitung Walther Comptess Addiermaschine
Bedienungsanleitung Walther Comptess Addiermaschine

Bedienungsanleitung Walther-Addiermaschinen mit Schiebe- und Schüttelwagen    (PDF, 10.7 MB or archive.org)
Walther-Büromaschinen GmbH
1962?
24 page booklet
148mm × 209mm × 1mm

German manual for the Walther Simplex and Duplex adding machines models with a wide typewriter-style paper carrriage. The Duplex machines had a second register for doing and storing calculations. The 132 and 232 model versions differed slightly in the style of paper carriage.

Bedienungsanleitung Walther-Addiermaschinen
Bedienungsanleitung Walther-Addiermaschinen
Bedienungsanleitung Walther-Addiermaschinen
Bedienungsanleitung Walther-Addiermaschinen
Bedienungsanleitung Walther-Addiermaschinen

Promotional material

Walther SR12 leaflet
1952-1962
3-part folded leaflet
Folded 107mm × 103m, unfolded 295mm × 103mm

This is a leaflet for the Walther SR12 adding machine, though it also mentions simpler hand-driven model S9.

Walther SR12 leaflet
Walther SR12 leaflet
Walther SR12 leaflet
Walther SR12 leaflet
Walther SR12 leaflet
Walther SR12 leaflet

Walther WSR leaflet
1952-1957
2-part folded leaflet
Folded 211mm × 151m, unfolded 422mm × 151mm

This is a leaflet for the Walther WSR 11 and WSR 16 pinwheel calculators.

Walther WSR leaflet
Walther WSR leaflet
Walther WSR leaflet
Walther WSR leaflet
Walther WSR leaflet
Walther WSR leaflet

Walther magnifying glass

This is a small magnifying glass inside a leather cover. The cover has the Walther logo embossed on one side, and a pictre of the model EMKD on the other.

Walther magnifying glass
Walther magnifying glass
Walther magnifying glass
Walther magnifying glass
Walther magnifying glass

Walther ashtray

This is a plastic ashtray, with the Walther logo in the centre.

Walther ashtray
Walther ashtray
Walther ashtray
Walther ashtray
Walther ashtray

Walther matchbooks

This is a set of 10 identical matchbooks with wooden matches. It has the Walther logo, the motto "Wir machen Rechnen einfach" (We make calculation easy), and the text "WALTHER liefert Rechenmaschinen, Addiermaschinen, Multiplikationsautomaten, Organisationsmachinen, Datenerfassungsgeräte." (Walther supplies calculators, adding machines, multiplication machines, organisation machines, data collection devices).

Walther matchbooks
Walther matchbooks
Walther matchbooks
Walther matchbooks
Walther matchbooks
Walther matchbooks

Articles and Advertisements

Here are some advertisements I found in online archives of magazines and newspapers.

1925 Jarlibro de Universala Esperanto-Asocio
1930-03-19 Het Vaderland
1930-03-23 Het Vaderland
1930-04-02 Het Vaderland
1939-20-12 Algemeen handelsblad voor Nederlandsch-Indie
1940-03-18 De locomotief
1929-09-25 Schwaebischer Merkur
1939-03-03 The Sydney Morning Herald
1940-09-06 The Sydney Morning Herald
1956-04-17 Neue Zuercher Zeitung
1971-05-21 Neckar-Bote
1973-11-05 Fort Worth Star Telegram

Here are some articles I found in online archives.

1920-09-07 Deutscher Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger
1930 Organisations-Lexikon - Walther

Patents

Here are just a few of the relevant patents.

PatentFiling datePriority dateNameDescription
US 209,41613-07-187829-10-1878Willgodt OdhnerPinwheel calculator
DE 422,44305-08-192401-12-1925Firma Mercedes Büromaschinen und Waffen-WerkeCarriage shifting mechanism
DE 422,51414-06-192502-12-1925Firma Mercedes Büromaschinen und Waffen-WerkeKeyboard input
DE 480,80505-11-192618-07-1929Carl Walther WaffenfabrikElectric drive
DE 545,53310-12-192902-03-1932Carl Walther WaffenfabrikSubtraction switch
DE 621,31613-10-193405-11-1935Carl Walther WaffenfabrikBack transfer mechanism
DE 845,11026-09-195005-06-1952Otto BarthelmesImproved carry switch
DE 925,43205-11-195024-02-1955Otto BarthelmesStationary input pins
DE 927,83525-11-195221-04-1955Walther Büromaschinen-GesellschaftCarriage return on clear
DE 971,53613-12-195129-01-1959Walther Büromaschinen-GesellschaftRegister clearance selection
DE 1,601,200 U23-09-194819-01-1950Fritz WaltherComma indicator design
DE 1,601,201 U23-09-194819-01-1950Fritz WaltherNumber wheel design

Links


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