The Manus Line, Model by Model

Over 34 years the Hamann Manus kept its capacity, 9 × 8 × 13, and its switching-latch drive. Almost everything around them changed: the clearing controls, the base, the carriage levers, the colour, the badge, and finally a back-transfer device that justified a new letter. DeTeWe never put a model plate on the early machines, so collectors have had to reconstruct the sequence from the machines themselves, by matching features to serial numbers across hundreds of examples. This volume sets out that sequence, the features that identify each model, and how they place my machine.

Figure 1 — A Manus model C, first variant, serial 2258, in its case: the flat base, the hollow-letter DTW badge, the wing-nut clearing handles. The closest documented relative of my own machine. — Photo: Denker, via Rechnerlexikon (rechnerlexikon.de).

3.1 Two lettering schemes

The model letters A to F are collectors’ letters. DeTeWe stamped some of them beside the serial number on early machines, but never published a model list. The standard reconstruction appeared in the German collectors’ journal HBw-aktuell in 2007 (Anthes, Reese and Schneemann) and was revised in 2011. The revision dropped a supposed model D of about 1939, known from a single photograph, and moved the letters along:

Table 1 — The model letters A to F are collectors' letters. DeTeWe stamped some of them beside the serial number on early machines, but never published a model list. The standard reconstruction appeared in the German collectors' journal HBw-aktuell in 2007 (Anthes, Reese and Schneemann) and was revised in 2011. The revision dropped a supposed model D of about 1939, known from a single photograph, and moved the letters along

2011 scheme (used here)	Older scheme (Rechnerlexikon)
A, B, C	A, B, C (C split into C1 and C2)
D, 1937–44	”D” (c. 1939, one photo) + E1 (1940–44)
E, 1948–53	E2
F, R	F, R

This series uses the 2011 scheme, as Wolf-G. Blümich and Jaap Scherphuis do. Where an older source says “E1”, read “D”.

Figure 2 — Christian Hamann's table of Manus models, setting the new (2011) letters beside the old. — Photo: Christian Hamann, public.bht-berlin.de/hamann.

3.2 The models

Table 2 — The models

Model	Years	Serial numbers	Identifying features
A	1925–26	c. 501–1000	Black; hollow-letter DTW badge; counter with red and white figures and no tens carry; overflow bell outside the carriage at the far left; wing nuts clear result and counter; curved crank-axle bearing; metal carriage levers
B	1926–27	c. 1001–1500	Counter tens carry added; a small “M”/“D” switch front-left of the carriage for a counter shutter (B only); crank-reverse release tab
C	1927–37	c. 1501–8200	Hook-shaped right-shift lever at the left; large white counter figures; underflow window between the registers; counter and result clear only with the carriage fully left; wing nuts
D	1937–44	c. 8201–12000	Higher base (31/39 mm); toothed rail in the base at the front right; push-down clearing levers replace the wing nuts, clearing in any carriage position; plastic carriage-shift buttons both sides
E	1948–53	c. 12001–15000	”DeTeWe” lettering instead of the DTW monogram; no toothed rail; black or green
F	1953–55	c. 15001–15800 (Jaap: 16000)	Two pressure levers at the right of the carriage; bevelled front base; clearing bar instead of the knob; levers no longer spring-loaded; green
R	1953–59	c. 40001–54000	Back-transfer (Rückübertragung) of the result into the setting levers; green or beige; DM 598 in 1958

Sources: Blümich, Entwicklungsstadien der Hamann Manus (2007, rev. 2016); Scherphuis; Rechnerlexikon. Blümich and Rechnerlexikon disagree on whether the C has an internal bell or none; Blümich, who lists the underflow window, says none.

Figure 3 — The first model: a Manus A, serial 956, 1925–26, with the overflow bell outside the carriage at the far left and wing-nut clearing. — Photo: M. Reese, via Rechnerlexikon (rechnerlexikon.de).

Figure 4 — Manus B, serial 1123, with the counter tens carry and the sliding counter shutter that only the B has. — Photo: Freddy Haeghens, via Rechnerlexikon (rechnerlexikon.de).

3.2.1 The model C in detail

The C was made for about ten years, longer than any other model, and changed in steps along the way. Blümich ties each step to a serial number:

Table 3 — The C was made for about ten years, longer than any other model, and changed in steps along the way. Blümich ties each step to a serial number

From about serial	Change
1501	Variant 1 begins: low base (10/18 mm), curved crank-axle bearing, metal carriage levers without an eyelet, hollow-letter “Manus” with a stretched final “s”
2700	Carriage levers with an eyelet
4600	No more metal cover with hooks at the rear of the base
5000	Plastic carriage lever
5700	Straight, covered crank axle
6001	Variant 2: higher base (23/29 mm), no model letter beside the serial, normal “s”
6201	Plastic grip on the right-side lever
7201	Wedge-shaped crank arm

Figure 5 — Manus C, serial 4007, from the middle of the first-variant run. — Photo: K. Schildbach, via Rechnerlexikon (rechnerlexikon.de).

Figure 6 — Manus C, second variant, serial 6629: the higher base and plain lettering of the C's built from about serial 6001. — Photo: Wolf-G. Blümich, via Rechnerlexikon (rechnerlexikon.de).

Figure 7 — The model D (Rechnerlexikon's "E1"), serial 8559, 1940–44: still black with the DTW badge, but with push-down clearing levers instead of wing nuts. — Photo: Wolf-G. Blümich, via Rechnerlexikon (rechnerlexikon.de).

Figure 8 — A post-war Manus E, serial 12,208, about 1948: green, with "DeTeWe" lettering in place of the DTW monogram. — Photo: Jaap Scherphuis, jaapsch.net/mechcalc.

Figure 9 — Manus F, serial 15528, 1953–55, with the clearing bar and two pressure levers at the right of the carriage. — Photo: Wolf-G. Blümich, via Rechnerlexikon (rechnerlexikon.de).

Figure 10 — The last Manus: a Manus R, serial 45656, 1958, with back-transfer of the result into the setting levers. — Photo: Christian Hamann, public.bht-berlin.de/hamann.

3.3 Dating my machine

My machine carries a stamped C and the number 1545; the worn first digit may be a 2.

The letter and the number agree. Both 1545 and 2545 fall in the C range, and both are below 6001, the point after which the letter was no longer stamped.
Both are in the first variant. That means a low base, a curved crank-axle bearing, levers without eyelets, and the stretched “s”, all of which I can check on the machine.
The date. The C ran from about serial 1501 in 1927 to 8200 in 1937. Spreading those numbers evenly across the years puts 1545 in 1927 and 2545 in about 1928–29. That is an estimate, not a record: production was certainly not even, and the Depression of 1930–33 must have slowed it. Christian Hamann dates his own C, serial 6229, to 1930, which suggests the early numbers were used up faster than an even spread implies.

Figure 11 — The right-hand side of my Manus: the crank on its curved bracket over the drive, and the right-hand clearing wing. The curved crank-axle bearing is one of the first-variant features. — Photo: my own.

3.3.1 Two quick tests

The research for this series turned up two simple tests that separate the early models without opening anything:

Counter carry. Set a 1, put the carriage in position 1 and turn the crank ten times. If the counter’s second place moves to 1, the counter carries, and the machine is a B or later.
Bell or window. An overflow bell on the outside of the carriage at the left means an A or B. A small underflow window between the counter and the result register means a C.

3.4 Model plates, serial numbers and where to look

Early machines carry the model letter beside the machine number on the base frame. On my machine both are stamped on the bottom, where the base pan’s frame meets the body. On at least one model D the same serial number also appears on the carriage. No source I have found says where DeTeWe stamped the number on every model, so a buyer should look at the bottom first, then under the carriage.

Figure 12 — Later machines carry the number on a label: serial 12208 on a Manus E. — Photo: Jaap Scherphuis, jaapsch.net/mechcalc.

Figure 13 — The underside of a Manus F with the plate of its dealer, Emil Schwehr of Freiburg: the same kind of dealer's plate as the Recklinghausen one on my machine. — Photo: Jaap Scherphuis, jaapsch.net/mechcalc.

3.5 How many were made

DeTeWe published no production figures. The serial ranges imply about 15,000 to 16,000 machines of models A to F and another 10,000 to 14,000 of the R. That makes perhaps 25,000 to 30,000 Manus in all, a modest number beside the hundreds of thousands of pinwheel machines made by Brunsviga or Triumphator. The estimate is mine, from the published ranges.

Figure 14 — A Manus D in the Ridai Museum of Modern Science, Tokyo University of Science: Manus machines were exported widely. — Photo: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Figure 15 — A wartime Manus in a Wehrmacht wooden drawing-kit box, in the Hjemmefrontmuseet war museum at Rakkestad, Norway. — Photo: Wolfmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

3.6 Prices

Table 4 — Prices

Year	Model	Price	Source
1940	Manus (model D)	RM 490 net cash, new, “available immediately from stock”	advertisement, Salzburger Volksblatt, 18 May 1940
1956	Manus R	DM 665	vintage-calculators.nl
1958	Manus R	DM 598	Büromarkt 1958, via Rechnerlexikon
1958	Manus E	DM 1,375 (as listed; looks high beside the R)	Büromarkt 3/1958, via Rechnerlexikon

Figure 16 — "A brand-new Hamann Manus, RM 490.– net cash, available immediately from the shop": a dealer's advertisement in the Salzburger Volksblatt, 18 May 1940. — Scan via Jaap Scherphuis, jaapsch.net/mechcalc.

Figure 17 — A DeTeWe leaflet of about 1938 showing the Hamann range: the hand-cranked Manus beside the motor-driven Elma, the Automat V and the Delta. — Scan via Jaap Scherphuis, jaapsch.net/mechcalc.