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KF5JRV > TECH 08.12.16 14:24l 43 Lines 2221 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 6665_KF5JRV
Read: DK3UZ GUEST DF7EAV OE7FMI
Subj: Victor
Path: DB0FHN<DB0PM<OE5XBL<OE5XBR<OE1XAB<HG8LXL<GB7YEW<N9PMO<NS2B<KF5JRV
Sent: 161208/1215Z 6665@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK6.0.13
Victor was formed in 1918 around Oliver D. Johantgen's
ideas for a new lightweight calculator. Carl Buehler,
sole owner of a chain of some 100 midwestern meat markets, thinking
he was buying a machine, instead ended up with $100 worth of stock
and stormed into a shareholders' meeting to get his money back.
Discovering that he was the only "deep-pockets" businessman present
and becoming convinced of the value of Johantgen's design, he soon
took control of the company with the approval of all.
But while Carl Buehler was a smart and successful businessman, he
knew nothing about calculators or adding machines. His son Albert
(later called A.C.) however, at 21 years of age, seemed just right
for the job of running this new concern. The elder Buehler installed
him as a V.P. and within a few years, A.C. was running the company
as he would for the rest of his life.
But its the machine, not the company or its CEO that is of interest
here. So, again we turn to Edwin Darby who describes the early design...
"Johantgen and his associates had originally decided to build a simpler,
less costly 'non-listing adding' machine. As the keys were depressed
and the handle pulled, dials moved figures in front of a window much
like a speedometer."
(Victor 110) So it would appear that this first model (the 110) was a
"key-set" design requiring a handle pull for each entry. In effect, it
was a "lister" without the listing equipment. Apparantly very few of
these machines were ever sold and Victor moved swiftly into production
of a lister model. While Darby reports that the earliest listers
carried the same model number as the non-lister (110), a careful
examination of one of the earliest examples reveals no model
designation whatever. Accordingly, the first lister model is here
considered to be the Model 210.
Victor went on to establish a major presense in the low end of the
adding machine market becoming a significant competitor for
Burroughs but not Felt & Tarrant. Victor's merger with the remnants
of the ailing Comptometer Corp. some 40 years later was an ironic
twist for a company that was never a serious threat to the Comptometer.
73 Scott KF5JRV
KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
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