Château

pinwheel machine (ca. 1908)

The Chateau is a French pinwheel machine which was produced by the company Chateau Frères & Cie, Paris. W.T. Odhner had probably given the right to manufacture his machine to the French workshop, just as he had sold it for Germany to Grimme, Natalis and Co (Brunsviga). Both under the name Chateau and under the name Dactyle, pinwheel machines were produced and sold in France between 1895 and 1930; the machines did not generally reach the German-speaking countries. At first, Chateau's machines hardly differed from Odhner's model, but later individual improvements were patented. The heavy machine with the capacity 9 x 8 x 13 has no transmission of tens in the revolution counter; one can read their number and arithmetic complement at the same time. The carriage lock allows to move the counter carriage in places. There are 2 more specimens in the collection, a later model with small capacity (7x6x10) and already some improvements (bell, tens transmission in the UW, optional automatic clearing of the EW) and an earlier one with still simple carriage shifting.