mechanical business machine, auction lot # 833.

[duccio]

This antique adding machine could calculate up to $9,999,999.99, an optimistic figure not quite a full 10M. I wonder if the operator ever dreamed about reaching the highest limits while working their adding machine job. The totals are displayed right above the buttons in a little window opening that the operator could watch, the sum total growing as they worked. There is a correct button and a repeat button; the mechanical inner workings must be ingenious and very complex. (You wouldn't have to understand that though, that was someone else's job.) I think there was a paper record printed for the file cabinet that came out of the back too, but I don't remember now - I didn't examine the thing too closely. Hovering above, it reminds me of a cemetery with your dark and light key buttons arranged with mathematical precision on a lawn. The bidding opened at $10. There were no takers, so the auctioneer must have asked for an offer... $1.00 determined the winner.