Monroe L-160X

Monroe L-160X

The Monroe Calculating Machine Company was formed in New York in 1912 by businessman Jay Randolph Monroe. He saw an opportunity to bring Frank Baldwin's invention, the pinwheel mechanism, to commercial use. Although Baldwin's calculating machine was patented as early as 1874, it wasn't developed for commercial use and mass production.

Monroe and Baldwin formed a partnership to develop the machine for business use. In 1914 the first commercial use mechanical calculator entered full-scale production in Orange, New Jersey. In the coming years, the Monroe product range covered a large variety of models and features, from basic hand-crank machines to high-speed motor-driven machines with multiple registers and full-automatic multiplication and division operations.

Under the post-war European reconstruction plan – the Marshall Plan, Monroe established new factories in Europe – in Holland and Italy.

This machine, the full-keyboard, stepped drum, hand-crank-driven Monroe L-160X, was manufactured in Monroe's Amsterdam factory in 1964. The L-series machines were designed as portable, miniaturized and lightweight calculators with foldable legs and a carrying case.

References: Rechnerlexikon and John Wolff's Web Museum

Registers: 8 x 8 x 16
Dimensions: 29 x 15,5 x 24 cm
Weight: 3,6 kg

Year of manufacture: 1952

Serial №: 653524