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Aderes / Adix Column Adder

Introduction
Calculation
My Aderes
Video
History
Advertisements and Articles
Patents
Links

The Aderes is a column adder that is based on the Adix machine from 1903. Column adders are small machines that allow you to sum up single digits. You use them to add up each column of a larger sum.

Calculation

As a simple example I will explain how you use a column adder to add the following 5 two-digit numbers:

 71
 63
 56
 19
 32
--- +
...

You would enter the digits of the right column into the adder, to get 1+3+6+9+2 = 21. You then write down the 1 and carry the 2 to the next column.

 2
 71
 63
 56
 19
 32
--- +
..1

Reset the adder and enter the numbers of the second column, including the carried-over 2. This gives 2+7+6+5+1+3 = 24. You then write this down to get the full answer.

 71
 63
 56
 19
 32
--- +
241

My Aderes

This is my Aderes column adder. There is no serial number, and it is very difficult to say when it was produced, and it could be anywhere from the 1930s to the 1950s. It is in excellent working condition, and comes in a plain cardboard box. The instruction leaflet is missing. It has black keytops like most other Adix variants, though some Aderes-branded adders have white keytops.

Video

Below is a video I made that demonstrates how the Aderes is used and how it works.

History

The Adix was developed by Joseph Pallweber in 1903. He was a clockmaker based in Mannheim, Germany, and designed many interesting clocks, including an electric digital clock with flip card display (GB 1896 15,856).

The first version of the Adix had a rather convoluted method for resetting the counter to zero, which involved holding down the 1 button, and turning various gears by hand. For this reason, the machine was not enclosed in a casing when in use. Joseph Pallweber together with Adolf Bordt set up the Adix Company to develop and sell these machines. Despite the complicated reset procedure, they sold reasonably well as they were cheaper and quieter than proper calculators.

Bordt developed two other machines that were based on the Adix mechanism. Starting from about 1906 there was the Diera, which had a clearing lever and an independent extra 7-digit register on which you could manually record the results of the addition. From about 1909 the company made the Kuli, which had a 12-digit register on a moving carriage to record the result automatically. It seems these were not very successful, presumably because they were not cheap but also still not proper calculators.

It seems that Pallweber left the company around 1910 to pursue other inventions (for example an alarm system for a cash box, GB 1910 24,677). Around that time Bordt designed a new adding machine, but the company continued to make the lowly Adix machines until about 1919. Bordt then moved from Mannheim to Leipzig and set up a new company there to make his adding machine. In the second half of the 1920s he did however return to making a version of the Adix called the Certa.

Johann Zähringer was a manufacturer and supplier of many of the parts for the Adix, based in Schönenbach, near Furtwangen in Germany. In the early 1920s he took over the full production of the Adix as Bordt was no longer interested in making them. They were sold in Germany and France under various names including Adix, Aderes, Amifo, and Reports, and production continued into the 1950s.

These machines had a much improved reset mechanism, with the lever on the left, and as there was now no need to expose the mechanism, they were enclosed in a bakelite case. The keys were given button tops instead of being just metal tabs.

Articles and Advertisements

I found various advertisements for the Adix in online archives, but have not found any for the later versions such as the Aderes.

Here is a Dutch ad for the Diera.

Here is the entries from Ernst Martin's 1925 book Die Rechenmaschinen.

Patents

Here are the various patents for the Adix and its variations, plus patents for a few predecessors.

Links

• rechenwerkzeug.de is a German site with interesting pages about the Evolution of the Adix, How it works, and the Aderes instruction leaflet.
• German Newspaper article about Johann Zähringer ( Archived version).
• Computer Timeline has a page about the Adix.
• Rechnerlexikon has entries for the Aderes and the Adix.
• Retrocalculators has an Aderes page.
• Rechnen Ohne Strom is an interesting site with a page about column adders.
• Informatik Sammlung Erlangen is a collection with an Adix.
• W.-G. Blümich's site includes an Aderes on its Column Adders page
• Possibly Interesting History of Computing by Nathan Zeldes has a page on the Adix.
• Cris Vande Velde has nice pictures of an early Adix, as well as a Kuli in perfect condition.
• Stephen Freeborn's YouTube channel has an excellent video about the Adix.

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