The Divisumma calculator was the mechanical jewel of Olivetti. Now is an icon of retrofuturist design

Before making a mathematical operation as easy as Ask for a voice assistant either type it in chatgpT, the calculators They were an essential tool on any desk. Long before Light and dear Casiothere were others that seemed authentic desktop computers: huge, heavy, and mechanically amazing. The most iconic were the Olivetti, jewels of engineering that combined technical precision with an industrial design Retroputurist that resists dying.

And among them, a name shone: Divisumma 26 GT.

The divisumma. Mechanical calculators exist since the 18th century in the 18th First calculator capable of multiplyingand it was in the XX when the revolution arrived. At the beginning of the century the keyboards were simplified, they became somewhat more compact, easy to use and the electric models appeared. That’s where Olivetti began to stand out. Its first electrical model, Divisumma 14 of 1948, was baptized like this because it could do the four basic mathematical operations and not only had a characteristic design, but surprising mechanics.

Twelve years later the Divisumma 24 arrived, and this was a revolution. Although the keyboard was still very simple and easy to use, it had a double totalizing system that allowed to change between two calculations without losing operations. In addition, he had memory for multiplication and mechanically began to complicate the thing. Seeing one of these machines without industrial cutting is a show:

26 GT, the culmination of mechanics. Since model 24, launched in 1956, the Italian company was launching other mechanical calculators focused on various users, but the true generational relief, and the culmination of electromechanical calculation, was the divisumma 26 GT of 1967. Apart from the basic operations, it had the ability to make calculations with powers and had a totalizer in this case, but with two memories.

This allowed the machine to store intermediate values ​​to chain calculations. It was fed by an electric motor that consumed 50 W and that storage of values ​​was not done in a chip or a memory like the ones we currently have: but based on mechanical parts.

It was that characteristic that allowed the 26 GT to overcome the previous models due to that most marked automation. Its weight of between 17 and 20 kilos (depending on the housing) for a 28 x 25 x 50 cm machine, evidence that the interior was an authentic metal jungle and a delight for sight. It was not the most advanced in the brand, since that same 1967 came the Logos 27-2but the reliability and maintenance problems of this put more value the work done by Teresio Gassino and Natale Capellaro In the mechanical part of the 26 GT.

Fashion calculator. Inside, the Divisumma were a real virguería, but on the outside it was not far behind. Like Braun, he is remembered, among other reasons, for iconic Dieter Rams designsa very important part of Olivetti was Austrian designer and architect Ettore Sottsass. He began collaborating with the Italian company in 1958 and remained as a design consultant for 30 years.

At that time he gave birth not only the Elea 9003 of 1959 (one of the first electronic computers in Italy), but the Olivetti Valentine of 1969 that was a symbol of Italian industrial design and some of the electric calculators of the house, “wearing” those good mechanical characteristics with housings that innovated in aesthetics.

The Divisumma 26 GT also had bodies of Sottsass, being one of them translucent to be able to appreciate mechanics and exceeding the passage of time. They are one of those elements that, such as Braun’s polishing, could launch at any time saying that they are retrofuturists and would not disregard at all. He had the foundations of the Divisumma 24, but added those distinctive orange colors and more straight lines so that it would not go out of style.

Electronics arrived. But we are in 1969 and progress tightened. Since the beginning of the decade, the electronic calculators had begun to appear the leg, but they were huge (the Anita MK VII with vacuum tubes and cathode tubes of 1961, for example) and impossible to use away from the desk. They evolved with the Sharp CS-10A From 1964 that already used transistors, but at the same time that Divisumma 26 GT arrived the real revolution.

Sharp launched its QT-8ba very compact battery calculator. Canon did the same with the Pocketronic that already pointed ways from the name and MK6010 Texas Instrumental had everything integrated into a chip, being smaller, cheap and energy efficient. All were on the electronics ship, so the old electric calculators had to think about retiring.

That does not break… Today, with that wave of nostalgia, we see users in places like Reddit who continue to love their ancient electric calculators Olivetti. They will use them or not, but there are those who affirm that, with basic maintenance, they continue to function as the first day. Its sound is still very representative, the design has not gone out of style and are even a very interesting decoration piece on a surface.

Now, seeing these veteran calculating I can only think about my CRT televisions to play old consoles. Not because of nostalgia -I do not have nostalgia for a calculator other than the casio that we have all had -but because, at the time they break, we will surely not find anyone who can repair them.

It will be that day when these pieces are only as a museum meat, but although the mechanics fail, that Retrofuturist design It will survive.

Images | Museo della Scienza e della technology “Leonardo da Vinci” (2), Museum, Hgrobe

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