The Lightning Calculator - Bonham, Hook and Pangborm
Bob Otnes · 2002
Introduction This article attempts to sort out the tangled web of information concerning the dial adders made by a number of different companies: the Bonham & Schram Company (B&S), the Calculator Company, The Pangborn Calculator, the Lightning Calculator Company, the Smallwood Calculator, and the Los Angeles reincarnation known as the Lightning Adding Machine Company. As will be seen, the Bonham & Schram, The Calculator Company, and the Pangborn Calculator machines, with minor variations, are essentially identical. The Lightning Calculator/Adding Machine, while different in many ways, is a direct descendant from them. The widely known book by Martin [5] discusses the Calculator Company, the Pangborn, and the Lightning Calculator, but does not mention the Bohnham & Schram machine. What Martin has to say about the Calculator Company, the Pangborn Adding Machine Company, and the Lightning Calculator Company is technically correct— that their machines were manufactured in the same factory. However, the factory did not belong to any of them. Apparently, the factory was a metal stamping company in Grand Rapids (or nearby). It made the devices for all three companies on a job-shop basis. The three makers were different companies owned by different people. Also, Martin’s omission of certain critical information, particularly the existence of B&S, has tended to cloud the joint history of the companies. These adders were produced from around 1905 to about 1959. They were very successful in the marketplace. Perhaps millions of the Lightning Adders where made in Los Angles, and are to be found in almost every flea market in the United States. The “Calculator” types, while not as common as the various Lightnings, can hardly considered to be rare. At the time of writing, Pangborns and Smallwoods are scarce, and very few B&S examples are known to me.