Arthur Burkhardt

In I876 Curt Dietzschold (1852-1922), a german mechanical engineer from Dresden and director of Österreichischen Uhrmacherschule in Karlstein, was invited to come in Glashütte (a small town in Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, which was the birthplace of the german watchmaking industry), as a head of a workshop for the construction of computing machinery, precision equipment and precision pendulum clocks. In the same year he started to build a multiplication machine. Its calculating mechanism was based on a relatively new type of mechanism—so called Schaltwerk mit Schaltklinke (rear derailleur with switching latch). The switching latch mechanism is described first time by Leupold in 1727.

In 1877 Dietzschold produced three copies of his machine and gave up one of them to the Royal Prussian Statistical Office for testing. The statistical office found that the machine did not operate to their full satisfaction. That's why Dietzschold asked for help from one of his most gifted university schoolmates, Arthur (Gotthilf Robert) Burkhardt, (24.01.1857-21.07.1918), another engineer, who was then serving his time in the army.

Burkhardt's residence and production facility in Glashütte

Burkhardt came to Glashütte in 1878, but in 1879 his friend Curt Dietzschold decided to return to Karlstein, and leaved the town. In the same year Burkhardt founded the first specialized factory for calculating machines in Germany—Erste Glashütter Rechenmaschinenfabrik and thus laid the foundation for the calculating machine industry in Germany. Burkhardt decided to abandon the design of Dietzschold and returned to the classical stepped-drum system of Leibniz and Colmar. The first model of his machine (so called Model A) was produced in 1878 (see the photo below), in 1879 was released the second model—Model H.

Burkhardt's Model A calculating machine (Courtesy of Mr. John Wolf)

A number of machines were produced for government authorities, insurance companies, and the like, but the demand for such machines was still so insignificant, that Burkhardt had to turn to the manufacture of other articles and, in fact, had to leave Glashütte for Braunschweig for several years (during which time he was active in an entirely different line). He later returned to Glashütte and again devoted his time to the manufacture of calculating machines. In 1892 the number of sold machines of Burkhardt reached 500.

In 1909 the wooden box was replaced by a cast iron casing and Model D and Model G were released (see the photo below).

Burkhardt model "G" calculating machine

In 1913 were released 3 new models—K, C, E.

Burkhardt model "E" calculating machine

Burkhardt is generally regarded as the founder of the calculating machine industry in Germany, and in the course of years he managed to keep improving his product. The Burkhardt Arithmometer obtained front places and medals on national, international and world fairs and was produced up to 1929, when the factory in Glashütte was closed. The successful calculating machines Saxonia and Archimedes were based on the construction of the Burkhardt Arithmometer.