DataArt Museum. Man-machine: desktop computing to microcalculators

DataArt continues to expand the collection and talk about individual exhibits of the museum. The last article dealt with the Soviet mice. This time the focus is on arithmometers and PCs - instruments of production of specially trained calculators.

The introduction of computers took several decades, the use of programmable machines at times seemed less convenient than the usual process, where the calculations were performed by a specialist with an adding machine. Computers were not only expensive, but also huge, they spent a lot of energy and demanded highly professional service: kilowatts and man-hours.
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Nevertheless, the gradual transition to a new way of making settlements at research institutes and design bureaus, in the supply services and accounting departments of enterprises turned out to be a painful social process. There was a real revolution, because it was not the case that turned out to be a whole army of calculators - neat and attentive specialists, who for years carried out complex mathematical operations in exhausting mode.


Arithmometer "Felix" on the cover of the instruction manual for the device

The main tools of labor of people who were under attack, and who previously occupied an important place in the Soviet economic system, were mechanical computers. In the USSR, these were, first of all, “Felixes” - arithmometers of the system of V. T. Odner . Data was entered into them with the help of levers, and actions were performed by turning a special handle.


VK-1 device from the DataArt Museum collection provided by Gleb Nitzman, the museum’s mastermind

The production of such tools was adjusted at several enterprises, but the largest were Kursk and Penza-based Schetmash plants.



Kursky Accounts was the leader in the production of "Felix", Penza produced the second most popular and slightly more advanced calculator - VK-1 (computational keyboard). And released them until the 1980s.


The passport to VK-1 on the site of collector Sergey Frolov is dated 1980 itself.

The popularity of mechanical computers was determined by their availability: the Felix in the 1970s was worth 13 rubles, the keyboard VC-1 was probably more expensive, but not much. At the same time, the price of the first bulky calculators reached several hundred rubles, and they themselves caused less confidence, and they were almost able to do the same as the standard adding machine.


Contex-20. Scandinavian design and German build quality

Interestingly, for some time the line of electronic and mechanical computing devices developed in parallel. To support the demand for mechanics, which might seem archaic against fundamentally new computers, was helped by the use of electric drives and lighter and more accessible materials. This path was followed by the Danish company Carlsen Bros, which in 1961 released an updated version of its Contex-20. In 1963, he received the prize of the Hannover exhibition (he himself was made in Hamburg) Die Gute Industrieform in the category of “goods” as a brilliant example of industrial design.


The device "Bistrica", created on the basis of Contex-20, from the collection of the Museum DataArt. Provided and restored by Gleb Nitzman

This arithmometer in the USSR fell in love so much that they began to produce under its own brand "Bistrica". Unlike the Penzensky or Kursk "Accountmash", here the manufacturer did not indicate his full name or return address, limited to the logo.


The collector Sergey Frolov helped us recognize the emblem of the manufacturer Bystrica.

Thanks to Sergey, we found out that these calculating machines were manufactured at the Electromash Plant. Lepse in the city of Kirov. The site of the plant says that the number of produced "Bystrits" is in the hundreds of thousands.


Enter data when working with "Bystritsa" is recommended with the left hand

It is important that the transition to keyboard input and electric drives was accompanied by more subtle improvements - for example, keyboard ergonomics: the number “5” was supplied with a protruding contour, which helps to navigate when typing blindly. It was another simple and understandable mechanical method for increasing the productivity of a calculator.

But already in the 1960s, ECM (Electronic Keyboard Computers) first took up space on the computers 'tables (see interview with the creator of one of the first ECMs, Eugene Kanevsky ), and then the computers themselves, settling on the engineers' desktops. The element base for such devices also varied, and gradually large and weighty machines with transistor blocks and an infinite number of wires gave way to more compact and lightweight devices on integrated circuits.


The device "Iskra-111m" from the collection of the DataArt Museum, provided by Gleb Nitsman

The first in this generation of computers was the Iskra-111 and its modifications. Like the whole Iskra series, the 111th series was created at the Leningrad State All-Union Design and Technology Bureau (GCKTB) Accounts and was intended for “business, economic planning, and accounting and statistical” calculations. Up until the early 1980s, the Iskra-111 and its modifications were the most popular PC in the USSR. But she also had to give way to the new, already truly compact computing devices — microcalculators.