My Winding Quest to Uncover Henry Goldman‘s Pioneering "Arithmachine" Calculator

As a technology historian and vintage computer enthusiast, I‘m always delighted when I stumble across a previously unknown early calculating device. Buried in old catalogs, patents, and text books lies the stories of ingenious inventors who pioneered the machines we rely on today. That‘s how I first learned of Henry Goldman and his superb mechanical adding machine – the Arithmachine.

Henry Goldman was an Austrian immigrant with a knack for office machinery automation. Before electronics, these gadgets had to derive all their smarts through pure mechanics. After moving to Chicago in 1881, Goldman published whole manuals on improved accounting methods using clever forms, indexes and bookkeeping aids.

But his magnum opus emerged in 1898 with a book outlining plans for the "Arithmachine." I managed to dig up one of the few surviving copies in the Library of Congress, and knew I had to learn more about Goldman‘s ambitious contraption…

My Investigations into the Enigmatic Inventor

Goldman‘s 1898 book "The Arithmachinist" paints him as almost a mad scientist of the accounting world. He evaluates virtually every adding and calculating machine of his day made by Stephenson, Webb, Layton and more. All while describing his own vision for the ideal adding device.

Here I found the first comprehensive description of the wondrous Arithmachine. Tiny in size, portable in form, and operated solely by tugging interconnected chains of numerical gears. I had to know if Goldman truly built this thing and got it to work.

Digging through early 1900s patents, I uncovered over 10 filed by Goldman around the Arithmachine innovations! The most central being US Patent #624788 granted in 1899 for a "Calculating Machine." Inspecting the intricate technical drawings within, I saw the device take shape. It was real!

Bringing Goldman‘s Brainchild to Life

Patent filings confirm Goldman wasted no time establishing the International Arithmachine Company in Chicago to produce his invention. Engineers must have worked furiously translating his ideas into hardened metal reality.

By 1901, the first Arithmachines rolled off the assembly line. A miniature metal box with nine columns of tightly geared chains, it almost resembles an old cable tv box in form. But don‘t be fooled! Watching brochure demonstration ads of operators nimbly tugging levers to add long sums, it was a mechanical marvel.

Key Arithmachine Specs

Size	4.5 x 1.5 x 3.5 inches
Weight	1 pound
Number of Chain Columns	9
Materials	zinc alloy, steel
Price	$24 to $48

For the early 20th century office, this small machine brought giant capabilities. Marketed heavily to accountants, banks and insurance agencies, its tailored specialization targeting number crunching workloads proved pivotal to adoption.

Praise From Period Publications

I love discovering vintage articles spotlighting bygone tech in its prime. And the Arithmachine had its fair share of publicity upon hitting the market around 1901.

In the Office Appliances Magazine of October 1901, the device even earned a multi-page showcase! Industry writers highlighted advanced features for the era like:

• Portability allowing use during client meetings
• Ten column capacity covering most use cases
• Ease of operation with basic training

The magazine applauded the machine‘s specialized capabilities and compact form, concluding Goldman had succeeded in making "…a portable machine for the purposes of the expert computer and accountant."

Glowing press combined with Goldman‘s own relentless promotion paid dividends. The Arithmachine soon found homes in all manner of early 20th century offices.

Legacy as Blueprint for Future Calculators

While the Arithmachine itself was only produced for around a decade, the blueprints endured to inspire a generation of successors.

In 1905, Goldman took his patents abroad, licensing a German firm to manufacture an evolved variant dubbed the "Contostyle Machine." At home, the Arithstyle Company iterated on the original design around 1910. But most critically, the Arithmachine formed the basis for the wildly popular Golden Gem Portable Adding Device released in 1907.

The Golden Gem took Goldman‘s chain-pull system and miniaturized it further into a staple pocket calculator. Thousands of Golden Gems deployed through the 1920s and 30s right up until electronics took over.

So while the Arithmachine name faded, its DNA persisted silently powering the march of progress in calculation equipment. Decades before electronics, companies depended on durable mechanical adding machines. And Henry Goldman‘s little metal box of chains and gears deserves honored placement among the pioneers of math automation.

I‘m thrilled to have tracked this unsung early calculating trailblazer through patents and articles surviving over a century later. That‘s the joy of studying technology history – unearthing stories of inventors and inventions forgotten to time. The Arithmachine won‘t change the world today, but in its era it was worthy of headlines! My mission now is spreading the word so innovators like Henry Goldman gain some modern recognition for the remarkable mechanical calculating feats they achieved. I hope you found some fascination in this discovery process! Let me know if you have any other early calculating devices I should dig into next…