The mechanical things that don’t fit under typewriters or pocket watches but belong to the same habit: pre-electronic precision mechanisms, bought cheap and broken, and brought back into service.

Missing years, serial numbers, and photos mean I haven’t logged that detail yet — these lists reflect what I’ve catalogued so far, not the full extent of what I own.

Part of the wider collections.

Adding Machines & Calculators

Mechanical calculation before the pocket calculator killed it off, spanning the three families that never really merged: Comptometer-style full-keyboard machines you drive with all ten fingers, pinwheel and stepped-drum machines you crank, and printing adders that commit each entry to a paper tape.
1926PLACEHOLDER — replace meComptometer Model JComptometerFull-keyboard8 columns000000Working
1954PLACEHOLDER — replace meCurta Type IStepped drumSetting slides8 columns00000Needs service

Sewing Machines

Cast-iron domestic machines from the treadle era through the early electrics — the point in industrial history where a precision mechanism first became a normal household object.
1917PLACEHOLDER — replace me66 RedeyeTreadleStraightFlatbedTreadle cabinetG0000000Working
1951PLACEHOLDER — replace meFeatherweight 221ElectricStraightFlatbedBentwood caseAL000000Working

Electric Fans

Brass-bladed and japanned-steel fans from the period when an electric motor in the home was still worth building a beautiful casting around.

A note on these: pre-war fans have no finger guard worth the name, cloth-insulated wiring that has usually gone brittle, and no thermal cutout. Every one that runs here has been rewired. They are display and occasional-use pieces, not appliances.
1919PLACEHOLDER — replace meType AOU4312 inBrassYes000000Working
1935PLACEHOLDER — replace meWhirlwind4110 inJapanned steel—000000Needs rewire

Cameras

Overlaps directly with photography — several of these still get used rather than shelved.
1960PLACEHOLDER — replace meRolleiflex 3.5F120TLR75mm f/3.5 PlanarSynchro-Compur0000000Working
1947PLACEHOLDER — replace meSpeed Graphic4x5Press127mm f/4.7 EktarFocal plane + Supermatic000000Working