Pinwheel Calculator

Today I spent doing odd small jobs and pottering indoors. One of the things that I did was to further strip the pinwheel calculator, which had wheels five and six jammed. When the pinwheels are rotated after setting, they are locked in their set position by a rod with slots cut in it, which passes above each pinwheel setting mechanism and rotates with the wheel. This part of the mechanism was not disengaging fully when the wheels were in the setting position, on the two wheels, which were locked. The end of the rod is moved by a cam attached to the frame and moved out of the way by the turning crank handle. If viewing large, the end of this rod can just be seen above and to the left of the junction between the two gear wheels directly behind the handle. The clearance between the rod and the crank was too great and adjustment of this clearance solved the problem. Today’s blip is of the disassembled calculator with all of the wheels in place on each carriage, but not yet ready for reassembly, as I still have a little cleaning and lubrication to conduct. However, I have no doubt whatsoever that it will all function perfectly, once reassembled.