Pocket Mechanical Calculator - Addiator/Addifix

The Addifix/Addiator is a great little pocket calculator and is fun to use. All with no electricity!

I may or may not want to start a small collection of these now because there are some fascinating and beautiful older ones. And it's so simple and cool. Any device that makes you think "Well of course thats how it works" and is easy to use like this is great in my eyes as a mechanical device. Sure, the Comptometer is amazing for the other reasons of being complex and functional. But I can appreciate the other end of the spectrum as well.

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[Fezzler]

My brother was studying to be an engineer in the early 70s and showed me how to use a slide rule. Magic! Back then, proficient slide rule users would say they could get an answer faster than the early calculators. A++ video.

[marioalday]

i asked for a calculator for Christmas and this was what i got. After some months of use, I became very proficient at operating this machine. I still own it. BTW, batteries are still alive after 50 years!

[bmos]

I inherited one of these from my grandfather! I can't imagine how cool this thing was back in the day.

[videocouk]

I had a single-sided "toy" version of this in the 1970s. I got really quite good at using it. Wish I hadn't lost it in the mists of time.

[tronentertainment]

Math person: "You can not divide by zero."
Addifix user: "Hold my beer."

[ncot_tech]

The more I see these types of adding machine, the more I understand why CPUs operate the way they do, with registers and 2s complement.

It all feels like the same operations.

[JimmyZNJ]

I remember having one of these as a kid. Being a kid though I never appreciated just what they could do and would just play with the stylus moving the columns of numbers. To see one of these again is just WOW! Mind blown!!

[jmtikka]

I'm not sure whether it was in my grandfather's office or on my aunt's desk but I've used one of those in the '60s as a little boy. What a wonderful machine indeed.

If it was in my grandpa's office, he used it for the bookkeeping and other necessary calculations for his little cement foundry. I never knew you could actually multiply and divide on those machines. I might not remember where that machine was but I remember clearly that the casing was colored black/brass.

[kennethlee]

In the 1970's they sold a item called a "Digital Calculator" or a "Magic Brain Calculator" in comic book ads, the name depended on the company selling it. The one I had was a piece of red plastic with a metal front with metal slides. It was functionally the same as this except it had the slides on one side only. I had a math teacher take mine from me one time during a test. She took it to her desk and played with it until I finished my test and brought it to her. She handed it back to me and told me that she didn't possibly see how it could help anyone with math.I went to show her how it worked and she stopped me, she told me that if she knew how it worked then she would have to fail me for cheating on a test. She was a cool teacher.

[devttyUSB]

You probably shouldn't with this one, but i am *very* curious to see the inside of one of those!

[abevigoda]

Addition and subtraction are very powerful indeed, when I was in college I found a book in the library about cordics, it took me to the conclusion that those techniques would allow me to mentally calculate trigonometric functions by means of addition and subtraction alone, I won bets against guys in college by finding the Sin, Cos or Tan of an angle in degrees or radians against their calculator with up to two decimal digits of precision, I earned some money back in the day, good 'ol times.

[P_RO_]

I had a few of these as a kid. Traded junk with friends and things like this popped up sometimes. There were cheaper ones and plastic ones but these you show were the good ones. I never learned to use a slide rule but I know some old guys who can 'fly' with one. Slide rules put man on the moon so don't discount their power. I remember the pocket calculator, getting one when they became affordable, then watching them get smaller and scientifically capable. Now your phone does it all...

[aurthorthing]

I had a paper and plastic wheel that did multiplication and division.
It had about 23 other functions as well. I can't remember the name of it but it was from the 50's or there abouts.
It also did conversions of weights and measures.... or something like that.
They need to bring this tech back.

[mojojomo]

I was fascinated by the concept way back in the early 80's and bought one from some magazine! It had less columns than the one shown though. I had forgotten all about it before seeing this video. Nice.

[fredsasse]

What a blast from the past! I'm an old man now but as a youngster I remember my dad using an Addiator doing his work reports in his home office. He taught me how to use it, and yes, I did use that knowledge to help with a math homework question a time or two.

[tekvax]

My grandma had one of these! She used it all the time. It lived on the kitchen table!

[mmmsatisfaction]

It breaks my heart to see so many *good* content creators kind of ignored because the algorithm only favors creators with pre-existing fans. They're doing everything right and that's the worst part.

[geormaia]

It is very good for training the mind in mathematics. If the power ever goes out, only the gears of this calculator will save us.😅✌🏽😎

[haramanggapuja]

I grew up when slide rules were the fancy thing engineering students used. I am pretty sure that I saw or saw someone use an Addifix or similar device when I was a kid. Or maybe even a college student. And now that you've shown this off, well, hell, now I want one! Thanks for the nice video.

[anomaly]

Your multiplication and division tricks (or variations of them) were used by programmers of the old 8bit CPUs and microcontrollers. For example, the 6502 didn't have multiply or divide instructions.