Standard Adding Machine Company was founded in the early 1890s (first records are from 1892) in Illinois and was the first company to (successfully) release a 10-key

adding machine An adding machine is a class of mechanical calculator, usually specialized for bookkeeping calculations. In the United States, the earliest adding machines were usually built to read in dollars and cents. Adding machines were ubiquitous of ...

. The machine was a breakthrough for its time because it dramatically modernized computing. Earlier key driven adding machines, like the

comptometer The Comptometer was the first commercially successful key-driven mechanical calculator, patented in the United States by Dorr Felt in 1887. A key-driven calculator is extremely fast because each key adds or subtracts its value to the accumula ...

, featured eight or more columns of nine keys, which made them cumbersome and costly and their operators prone to mistakes. The 10 keys were set on a single row. The invention won an international grand prize during the

1904 World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 milli ...

and was heralded as a "modern life preserver" in an office journal.

History

William H. Hopkins, the inventor of the Standard Adding Machine, was a minister. When he moved to St. Louis in 1885 he served as chaplain and then pastor of St. Louis Second Christian Church. He continued to invent during those years and to find better ways to make an adding machine. In the 1890s, he left Second Christian Church and became assistant editor of the company that published ''The Christian Evangelist''. William Hopkins filed his first patent on October 4, 1892. He registered the Hopkins Adding Machine Company in 1897, and in 1899 his company changed name to Standard Adding Machine Company (Illinois company was bought off). The Standard Adding Machine Company released the first 10-key adding machine in about 1900. Hopkins' success led to competition. By 1915, other adding machine companies were vying for business. In 1916, Hopkins died, and his company began to decline. Standard Adding Machine closed in 1921. In the decades since, the building housed businesses such as St. Louis Pump & Equipment Co., Lee Paper Co., and most recently, Harrison-Williams Store Fixtures. Vacant since 2003, the building was renovated in 2005 by

Aquinas Institute of Theology Aquinas Institute of Theology is a Roman Catholic graduate school and seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded by the Dominican Order and is sponsored by the Province of St. Albert the Great. Academics The institute offers a number of g ...

Recognition

Because of the historical significance of the adding machine, the Standard Adding Machine building is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

Notes

External links

rechenmaschinen-illustrated.com
Picture of an early Standard machine. * *
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{{National Register of Historic Places Mechanical calculator companies National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri Defunct manufacturing companies based in Missouri