Friden SW 10

[James Brothers]

Hello.   I am a prop master working on a feature film about NASA.   We are looking for 20 working calculators.   Friden SW10 Is this even possible?   Where can someone find/rent/purchase these machines?    

Thanks

[John Scriven]

Hi,

I guess you're looking to replicate the scene in the attached photograph?

I strongly suspect that you are asking the impossible - these machines are very thin on the ground.  Most would have been owned by large corporations and universities (and NASA!), and would have been unceremoniously scrapped with the advent of electronics.  Those that survived the initial cull would have largely fallen by the wayside in the intervening 50-odd years due to the lack of regular maintenance.  As a result, WORKING machines are rare beasts indeed.  I suspect there are fewer than 20 in the entire world.

I  think that your best course of action would be to find one working machine (no easy task in itself!) and mock up the others.

If anyone else would like to say something about this, please feel free to contribute. I would love to be proved wrong. :-)

For the record, I don't own a Friden, working or not.

Kindest Regards

John

[James Brothers]

Yes.     And all those words are SO TRUE.    Our expectations have dwindled down to fewer then our first thoughts.   

Luckily we have found 5 so far with Two matching Fridens.     Monroes and Fridens seem to be the easiest to find.   And one of my matching Fridens "MIGHT" actually work.   The hunt is on......

[Richard Piotter]

I can vouch for the not working bit... Mine is stuck in an infinite loop. It increments by whatever is on the keyboard, and never stops. Can't release the function keys, can't change modes. Also, one digit is VERY jammed. ;_;

Richard Piotter
richfiles


Begin forwarded message:
> From: James Brothers <james...@gmail.com>
> Subject: [oldcalculatorforum] Re: Friden SW 10
> Date: February 12, 2016 7:07:04 AM CST
> To: OldCalculatorForum <oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com>
> Reply-To: oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com

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[Norm Goldblatt]

I have a number of Marchants,not working, but possible useful for props. I think I have 5.  Interested? 

 

From: oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com [mailto:oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of James Brothers
Sent: Friday, February 12, 2016 5:07 AM
To: OldCalculatorForum
Subject: [oldcalculatorforum] Re: Friden SW 10

 

Yes.     And all those words are SO TRUE.    Our expectations have dwindled down to fewer then our first thoughts.   

--

[calcucris]

You could try and ask Mark Glusker - he will certainly not have 20 machines, but he may have at least one working one ... and is more conveniently located than us Europeans too.

http://www.mortati.com/glusker/elecmech/index.htm
 
Godo luck!

Op woensdag 10 februari 2016 14:43:45 UTC+1 schreef James Brothers:

[Norm Goldblatt]

I also have a boxed Twin pack of Pickett slide rules, the relevance being that on the box is a reference to the Astronauts use of them

[Paulos, Richard G]

I agree with John, finding survivors will be tough.  When I was in high school, my computer class was held in the business machines room. 40 desks with Fridens and Monroes (plus the ibm punch card machine we had to use for our cobal & fortran programming exercises).  I had some fun making them do 15 digit divisions, they had quite the rhythm, some you could dance to.  Considered obsolete even then (1973).  I was sorry to hear a couple years later that some vandals broke in and threw all of them out the 3rd story window to the pavement below.  I've wanted one but all I find locally are the much older hand crank models.

Rick

---

From: oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com <oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of John Scriven <john.s...@outlook.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 3:51 PM

To: OldCalculatorForum
Subject: [oldcalculatorforum] Re: Friden SW 10

 

Hi,
<snip>

I strongly suspect that you are asking the impossible - these machines are very thin on the ground.  Most would have been owned by large corporations and universities (and NASA!), and would have been unceremoniously scrapped with the advent of electronics.  Those that survived the initial cull would have largely fallen by the wayside in the intervening 50-odd years due to the lack of regular maintenance.  As a result, WORKING machines are rare beasts indeed.  I suspect there are fewer than 20 in the entire world.

<snip>

Kindest Regards

John

On Wednesday, 10 February 2016 13:43:45 UTC, James Brothers wrote:

Hello.   I am a prop master working on a feature film about NASA.   We are looking for 20 working calculators.   Friden SW10 Is this even possible?   Where can someone find/rent/purchase these machines?    

Thanks

[Harry Ward]

In the movie, The Apartment, there are scenes of an office in an insurance company, infinitely wide, and twice that in length. The walls come together in the distance like railroad tracks. Sometimes there are people in the scene, sometimes just the desks On each desk there's a mechanical calculator. One at a time, they're lovely things. We quickly understand why Jack Lemon wants to trade his cartesianly identified desk for a room of his own. These scenes may the the scariest ever in a film.

But the director made a mistake. The calculators are all on the right side of the desk. He should have talked to someone who had used these machines: Run the machine with your left hand; the right is for your pencil. The photo in a previous post has it right.

Somewhere on the net there's a description of how the further reaches of the room were faked.

If you need the noise of those beauties (I love them), you'll find recordings on the net.

The machines are Fridens.

Harry

[Richard Piotter]

It occurs to me, that if you can get at least one functioning machine, or at least a machine that increments (whether the thing functions correctly or not), that you could recreate the sound of an office room of these in post processing. Take your ONE functioning (or partially functioning) unit and record samples of it performing different things, with different sized entries on it. Record this from a few locations in the room , and then layer it all together. The authentic sound of a room of Fridens, all from a single unit. Then you can just use prop units for most of the room.

At that point, you really only need one unit if you intend to do a close up and show it functioning.

As I mentioned before, Mine is in storage. Last time I used it, it will increment continuously, but never stops. It also has a digit that seems to have the carry jammed. If I had the courage and a service manual, I bet I could get mine to work. It seems like it's probably just something gummed up. These machines are incredibly complex mechanical devices, and I'll bet mine hasn't been lubed since the 60s. That it still chugs away, correctly incrementing the number entered into the keyboard still amazes me.

I wanna say, it seems like it's stuck in either an addition or a multiplication loop. The multiplier keys are also locked. I'm half tempted to grab it from the storage unit and play with it, but I have a few other projects that I need to do first. I've never opened it... The number of intricate mechanical components in these mechanical calculators is really intimidating!

Richard Piotter
richfiles


Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Paulos, Richard G" <rick-...@uiowa.edu>
> Subject: Re: [oldcalculatorforum] Re: Friden SW 10
> Date: February 12, 2016 1:00:02 PM CST
> To: "oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com" <oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com>
> Reply-To: oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com
>
> I agree with John, finding survivors will be tough. When I was in high school, my computer class was held in the business machines room. 40 desks with Fridens and Monroes (plus the ibm punch card machine we had to use for our cobal & fortran programming exercises). I had some fun making them do 15 digit divisions, they had quite the rhythm, some you could dance to. Considered obsolete even then (1973). I was sorry to hear a couple years later that some vandals broke in and threw all of them out the 3rd story window to the pavement below. I've wanted one but all I find locally are the much older hand crank models.
>
> Rick
>
>

[Norm Goldblatt]

I have a working Friden. I'll loan it to you.

Sent from my iPhone

[John Scriven]

On the British/European side of the pond, Facit machines seem to survive in larger numbers.  Unfortunately, as well as being historically inaccurate for your purposes, the design of the machines means that the carriage is internal, so making these machines less interesting to look at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd3R9u2vuCo

Regards

John

On Wednesday, 10 February 2016 13:43:45 UTC, James Brothers wrote:

[Andrea Celli]

I've got a Friden STW-10 in my collection. Last time i tested it, it was working.

But i live in Italy. Postage will be very expansive :-(

Why just Friden?

Also Monroe or Marchant could have been used by NASA

Andrea

 

[mg]

In case anyone wonders what happened with this film, it is called "Hidden Figures".  It tells the story of three mathematicians who worked for NASA in the 1960s.  All three are African-American women, and the film is based on a book written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The film will be released in January, 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures

[Norm Goldblatt]

Must they be SW-10?  I have 5 Marchant Figurematics you are welcome to borrow.  Same vintage.

 

From: oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com [mailto:oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of mg
Sent: Sunday, October 2, 2016 9:45 AM
To: OldCalculatorForum
Subject: [oldcalculatorforum] Re: Friden SW 10

 

In case anyone wonders what happened with this film, it is called "Hidden Figures".  It tells the story of three mathematicians who worked for NASA in the 1960s.  All three are African-American women, and the film is based on a book written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The film will be released in January, 2017.

--

[mg]

Hi Norm,

Thanks for the offer, but the filming of the movie is completed so they don't need any more machines.

On Sunday, October 2, 2016 at 10:06:31 AM UTC-7, Norm Goldblatt wrote:

Must they be SW-10?  I have 5 Marchant Figurematics you are welcome to borrow.  Same vintage.

 

From: oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com [mailto:oldcalcul...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of mg
Sent: Sunday, October 2, 2016 9:45 AM
To: OldCalculatorForum
Subject: [oldcalculatorforum] Re: Friden SW 10

 

In case anyone wonders what happened with this film, it is called "Hidden Figures".  It tells the story of three mathematicians who worked for NASA in the 1960s.  All three are African-American women, and the film is based on a book written by Margot Lee Shetterly. The film will be released in January, 2017.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures

 

On Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 5:43:45 AM UTC-8, James Brothers wrote:

Hello.   I am a prop master working on a feature film about NASA.   We are looking for 20 working calculators.   Friden SW10 Is this even possible?   Where can someone find/rent/purchase these machines?    

 

Thanks

 

 

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