Reference / Paper · 2002
Otnes's history of the Lightning and its makers, from Grand Rapids and Los Angeles city directories, with photographs and X-rays of the machines. Journal of the Oughtred Society 11:1 (Spring 2002), pp. 53–58.
Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 2002 53 The Lightning Calculator – Bonham, Hook and Pangborm Information about Walter Richard Bonham is scant, and such as it is has been taken from Marquis [3]. Note: This article was adapted from a paper read before the International Slide Rule Meeting held in Munich on He filed two petitions for patents on his machine in 15 September 2001. 1905, the date given in Martin. However, the patents were not granted until 1907 and 1909. There is a 1906 Introduction This article attempts to sort out the tangled web of address for the B&S company in Chicago. Bonham lived information concerning the dial adders made by a number in Chicago. Bob Otnes of different companies: the Bonham & Schram Company (B&S), the Calculator Company, The Pangborn Calculator, the Lightning Calculator Company, the Smallwood Calculator, and the Los Angeles reincarnation known as the Lightning Adding Machine Company. As will be seen, the Bonham & Schram, The Calculator Company, and the Pangborn Calculator machines, with minor variations, are essentially identical. The Lightning Calculator/Adding Machine, while different in many ways, is a direct descendant from them. The widely known book by Martin [5] discusses the Calculator Company, the Pangborn, and the Lightning Calculator, but does not mention the Bohnham & Schram machine. What Martin has to say about the Calculator Company, the Pangborn Adding Machine Company, and the Lightning Calculator Company is technically correct— that their machines were manufactured in the same factory. However, the factory did not belong to any of them. Apparently, the factory was a metal stamping company in Grand Rapids (or nearby). It made the devices for all three companies on a job-shop basis. The three makers were different companies owned by different people. Also, Martin’s omission of certain critical information, particularly the existence of B&S, has tended to cloud the joint history of the companies. These adders were produced from around 1905 to about 1959. They were very successful in the marketplace. Perhaps millions of the Lightning Adders where made in Los Angles, and are to be found in almost every flea market in the United States. The “Calculator” types, while not as common as the various Lightnings, can hardly considered to be rare. At the time of writing, Pangborns and Smallwoods are scarce, and very few B&S examples are known to me. The three examples of Bonham & Schram calculators that I have seen all have a plain brass finish. The Calculator, Pangborn and early Lightning machines all have black enamel finishes. Except for the finishes and the names stamped on them, the machines are identical, as will be seen in their pictures and their X-rays shown in Figure 3. The Calculator Company – Grand Rapids and Hook Figure 1. R. Wallace Hook ca 1940. Bohnham & Schram - Chicago 1871 W.R. Bonham born February 6. 1905 Bonham applies for two patents. Figure 2. Hook’s signature on a Calculator document. 1907 Patent 845,747 granted March 5 (filed November 20, 1905). 1909 Patent 908,371 granted April 6 (filed April 6, 1905). 1917 Bonham is the Chicago manager of the Triumph Electric Co. of America. R. Wallace Hook first appears in 1915 as the manager of the Calculator Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He would be associated with the Calculator Company and the Lightning Calculator Co., both of Grand Rapids, for over 25 years. 54 Journal of the Oughtred Society Figure 3. Top: Second from top: Third from top: Bottom: The Bonham & Schram Improved Calculator. X-Ray of the Bonham & Schram. X-Ray of The Calculator. The Calculator. Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 2002 55 1915 Calculator Sales Co., 217-218 Fourth Natl Bank a copy of notice of proceedings filed on behalf of Frank Bldg., R. Wallace Hook, Agency Manager, Distrib- C. Pangborn in the United States District Court, District of Michigan, on March 8, 1922 against R. Wallace Hook utors of the Calculator Adding Machine and The Calculator Corporation. The patents referred to 1916 Calculator Sales Co., 217-218 Fourth Natl Bank in the action are the two granted to Bonham. I do not Bldg, R. Wallace Hook, Agency Manager, Distrib- know the outcome of the proceedings. utors of the Calculator Adding Machine Note that under the decal in Figure 4b, one can clearly read “THE CALCULATOR CORP.” This would lead one 1917 Calculator Corporation, 217-219 Fourth Natl Bank to believe that Pangborn had purchased The Calculator Bldg., R. Wallace Hook, President, P.O. Hamm, Corporation and changed the name to his own. Sec-Treas. Distributors of the Calculator Adding Hook may have owned The Calculator Corporation at Machine the time of the sale, or he could have been mentioned in 1918 - 1919 Calculator Corp. Natl Bank, R.W. Hook. the suit because of his patent for the Lightning Calculator. 1920 Same; moved to Wm Alden Smith Bldg. In the 1921 Grand Rapids City Directory, the Pangborn Adding Machine Co. and the Lightning Calculator 1921 Became Lightning Calculator are both mentioned, the latter for the first time. Also in The Calculator Company appears in the Grand 1921 Hook filed his first patent (it was not granted until Rapids directory for the first time in 1915, with R.W. 1926). My guess is that Hook, who had worked for the Hook as the manager, not the owner. Hook was born in Calculator/Pangborn company, at this point split off and 1891, so he would have been about 24. That is, someone formed a new company with his new design in 1921. The Pangborn company was mentioned in the 1923 else apparently owned the company, but Hook operated directory, but not in the one for 1924. Pangborn could it for some years. I do not know who the actual owner have failed in the face of competition from the superior was. It could have been Bonham, Schram, Pangborn, or Lightning, or he could have sold out to Hook. Genersomeone entirely different. ally, the Hook (Lightning) was a better machine, the sole Grand Rapids – Pangborn better feature of the B&S/Pangborn being that it will 1921 Pangborn Adding Machine Co., 339 Commerce Av both add and subtract (but not at the same time) while the Lightning will only add (ignoring the complementary SW method—the Lightning is not marked for it). 1922 Pangborn Adding Machine Co., 339 Commerce Av Martin [5] states that they were both made by the SW (Frank C. Pangborn) same company, and that is probably true in that both companies probably had them manufactured at the same 1923 Pangborn Adding Machine Co., 339 Commerce Av stamping foundry, or that Hook bought out Pangborn. SW Figure 4a. The Pangborn machine from [4]. Figure 5. An earlier machine with the Lightning name. Figure 4b. The Pangborn decal. The date March 5, 1907 shown on the decal in Figure 4b is assumed to be for the Bonham patent number 845,747. The patent file wrappers for this patent include 56 Journal of the Oughtred Society Grand Rapids – The Lightning Calculator Figure 6. The Grand Rapids Lightning Calculator of R.W. Hook. 1921 R.W. Hook files patent – this became the Lightning machine. 1921 Lightning Calculator Co., 5th floor Wm. Alden Smith Bldg., R.W. Hook, F.E. Hook, sec-treas., Russel Reeve, asst. manager. (F.E. Hook was R.W. Hook’s father.) 1923 Lightning Calculator Co., 5th floor Wm. Alden Smith Bldg, R.W. Hook, President, L. L. Hook, secretary-treasurer. 1924 Lightning Calculator Co., 504, 30 Ionia Avenue SW. 1926 Hook granted patent 1,574,249 for the Lightning. 1926 Lightning Calculator Co., Houseman Bldg., R.W. Hook, President, F.E. Hook, general manager. 1927 -1929 Same. 1930 H.T. Landefeld, manager. 1931 F.E. Hook, Houseman Building. 1932 - 1939 Same. 1940 No manager named. Perhaps Hook sold out. 1941 Lightning Calculator Co., 363 Houseman, Morris Zuckerman, manager. 1942 - 1944 Lightning Calculator Co., 504, 41 Pearl NW R363, Morris Zuckerman, manger. 1948 R.W. Hook dies January 2. I believe that during this whole period (1921 to 1940) only the black machine with wooden base was made and sold. I stated above that the Lightning Calculator was the superior machine. This is because the Calculator is a quirky device in that locations for reading the result of the summation are not fixed. Rather, each dial has 10 holes; nine of them are identical. The tenth hole is elongated towards the pivot of the dial so that it exposes a digit otherwise hidden. As the dials are turned to input the addend, they sequentially expose the result digits 0,1, ... ,8,9. The problem is that the digits are not on the same line. Check Figure 3. The Calculator on the bottom shows the result 0003480; the result hole positions are different for each of the four right digits. What Hook did was move the results from underneath the input dials over to new and separate windows. These windows reveal digits now printed on the gears used to transmit carries from one digit to the next. The mechanism of The Calculator and The Lightning are nearly the same: Hook only changed where the output is read. That is not to say that the machines are identical. Far from it. The Lightning is larger and heavier. Also, it requires an additional carrying type wheel, not actually carrying, to act as the result wheel for the rightmost digit. The construction of the two adders is different: The Calculator employs rivets to hold its top and bottom plates together, and cannot be readily taken apart. This is the reason that X-rays were used to show the insides of this type of machine. The Lightning, on the other hand, has a top face completely free of rivets. Instead, the top plate is held onto the machine with metal tabs that wrap around the bottom plate. While I do not recommend removing the top from a Lightning, it can be done remembering that the tabs can easily break off after a series of cold bends. Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 2002 57 Los Angeles – The Lightning Adder Figure 7. Three versions of the Los Angeles Lightning Adder. Starting from the top, they are brown, green, and a blue-grey. The Lightning surfaced again in Los Angeles in 1946. It is possible that the stamping processes were needed because of the war, and that no machines were made from 1942 to 1946. The information that follows on the two Lightning Adding Machine organizations in Los Angeles was taken from Los Angeles City Directories.1 I do not know why there were two separate locations. Perhaps one was for manufacturing and the other for sales. In Los Angeles, manufacture started with the original model, but switched from the wooden base to the Bakelite stand that was to become standard. Note in Figure 7 is that it is now the Lightning Adding Machine rather than the Lightning Calculator. Also, while the type font for Lightning in the earlier machine at the top is the same as the Grand Rapids machines, the font changed to a different style in later models. The first changes were from the plain black to the 1946-1947 Lightning Adding Machine Co., 543 S. variety of different colors. The top machine in Figure 7 Spring, Lightning Calculator Co., 325 W. 2nd. shows a tan model. I know of red and dark red versions, 1950-1953 Lightning Adding Machine Co., 1260 W. and have even heard of plaid ones! 2nd, Lightning Calculator Co., 543 S. Spring. Next, it got a clearing mechanism (green model) and 1955 Lightning Adding Mach Sales Co., 234 W. 37th Pl., finally the subtraction feature (gray model). These imManufacturers and Distributors-Lightning Adding provements were not unique to the Lightning. The clearMachines. ing mechanism is the same as that of the Thomas de Col1956-1959 Lightning Adding Machine Sales Co., 2306 mar Arithmometer, and the reversibility of the dials that W. Slauson., Manufacturers and Distributors- permits subtraction appeared on many machines prior to Lightning Adding Machines, Earl Coffin, President. the Lightning. 1 The information was actually supplied by the Pasadena City Library System as the copies in the Los Angeles Library System were damaged and unavailable. 58 Journal of the Oughtred Society The Los Angeles company may have made over two into the metal and filled in with paint at the right end million adders. It is probably the most successful of all of of the machine, while the Smallwood has a decal in the the small adders. The final gray model works well, and is same location. The decal does not seem to be covering any stamping, quite practical. as was the case with the Pangborn. Smallwood – Oakland Investigation so far has produced no other information on the Smallwood. Figure 8. The Smallwood decal. The Smallwood Calculator Company of Oakland, California produced a close copy of the original Lightning Calculator. The dimensions are about the same. There is a slight difference in weight between two examples that I compared: 12.50 oz. for the Lightning versus 13.05 oz. for the Smallwood. The principal difference is that the Lightning has the name and location of the company stamped Conclusions This family of machines had a long and useful life. They are perhaps the ultimate democratization of the design of Blaise Pascal’s 17th century design of an adding machine, permitting almost anyone of modest means to have a substantial and reliable aid. For the collector there are many models to try to find. Some are very common, which makes them inexpensive. Others might take years to acquire. As for myself, I certainly am still looking. References 1. Bonham, W.R., Calculating Machine, US patent No. 908,731, filed Apr. 6, 1905 and granted Mar. 5, 1907. 2. Bonham, W.R., Calculating Machine, US patent No. 845,747, filed Nov. 20, 1905 and granted Jan. 5, 1909. Two-fifths assigned to A.J. Schram of Lake Geneva, WI. 3. Marquis, A.N. ed., The Book of Chicagoans, Chicago, A.N. Marquis & Company, 1917. 4. Martin, E., Die Rechenmaschinen und ihre Entwicklungsgeschichte, Pappenheim, Verlag Johannes Meyer, 1925. 5. Martin, E., The Calculating Machines, the English translation by Peggy Aldrich Kidwell and Michael R. Williams, (Cambridge, MA and London) The MIT Press, and (Los Angeles, San Francisco) Tomash Publishers, 1992. The Gaugers at work at the London docks. 1900? Supplied by Jim Bready