Weiss

Four-species switching ratchet machine

ca. 1893

Very rare four-species calculating machine by Friedrich Weiss, Vienna, of which only three copies are known: two in the Technical Museum Vienna (inv. no. 15530, 1 and 15530, 2) and this one in the Arithmeum with machine no. 106. The files of the Vienna Museum note "produced around 1900 (since 1893)" and "produced in 1905 by Friedrich Weiss Vienna", which poses questions regarding the date of production. The machine presented here is unmarked, the naming was done in analogy to the two specimens in the Technical Museum Vienna, which, in contrast to the present one, however, were produced more professionally. This leads to the assumption that the present specimen is a mainly handmade prototype.

Friedrich Weiss was a watchmaker in Vienna, who was also involved in the sale of four-species calculating machines. For example, the Burkhardt machine Inv. No. FDM 7051 bears the designation "Friedrich Weiss Uhrmacher Wien" below the Burkhardt logo. It can be assumed that Weiss not only wanted to distribute the Burkhardt machines, but also tried to launch his own design on the market with the machine presented here. By using a switching ratchet mechanism, he attempted to do this with the very same switching principle that Curt Dietzschold (cf. Inv. No. 7153) had tried to establish before Burkhardt in Glashütte in Saxony. The Weiss mechanism, however, is quite different from that of Dietzschold; seen from the outside, the machine is more reminiscent of the Heyde & Büttner of about 1883, a construction which, however, also took place after Dietzschold.