Page 7 - Kotov
P. 7
Odhner died in 1905, in St. Petersburg and his sons Alexander and Georg
took over the reins. Their company produced about 23,000 calculators
until 1917. During the Russian Revolution of 1917 the factory was na-
tionalized.
The Soviet Felix arithmometer
There are many legends about how Odhner became interested in calculating machines at a young age.
There are two stories about that told by Odhner himself. First of them is, that as a quite young engineer
Odhner had in 1871 an opportunity to repair a Thomas calculating machine and then became convinced
that it is possible to solve the problem of mechanical calculation by a simpler and more appropriate way.
The other story is that in 1875 Odhner had read an article about Thomas arithmometer and thought it
might be possible to construct a simpler calculating machine.
– 5 –
