Schuster II (Replica)

Cylindrical four-species stepped drum machine

1820

This further development of Hahn's calculating machine from 1770/74 (see Inv. No. FDM 9260) was constructed by the former Hahn journeyman Johann Christoph Schuster (1759-1823) in Ansbach from 1805 to 1820. The inscription on the cover reads: "Calculation=machine by Joh: Christ: Schuster in Ansbach in Francken started in 1805 finished in 1820". The machine is more compact and shows an improvement in regards to the setting mechanism, where the racks are moved by rotary knobs - similar to the Müller'sche Calculating Machine from 1783. It is otherwise identical to the machines by Hahn, on which Schuster had worked in his youth and of which he had independently completed a machine that was unfinished at the death of pastor Hahn in 1792. In 1804 Joh. Paul Bischoff from Ansbach mentioned the 'small watchmaker Schuster from Ansbach' and reported that he had been a journeyman with pastor Hahn from 1778 to 1780 and then married a sister of Hahn. However, it could also be that Schuster did not live and work with Hahn until the eighties of the 18th century. Around 1787 Schuster moved to Westheim in Franconia, his birthplace, then in 1790 to Uffenheim and finally settled in Ansbach until his death in 1823. The calculating machine specialist Bischoff most likely met Schuster personally; perhaps this acquaintance gave Schuster the impetus for this further development of Hahn's calculating machine, because Bischoff also knew the machine from Müller. After finishing the lengthy work on this machine, the original of which is in the German Museum, Schuster built another one between 1820 and 1822, which only reappeared in 1993 after a long time. According to this, Schuster manufactured a total of three calculating machines.