Since 1910: A Brief History of Marchant Calculators

<- page 5 of 8 ->

The "Figuremaster" and the "Figurematic"

Harold T. Avery
Inventor of the proportional gear mechanism,
Mr. Avery headed Marchant engineering
from 1929 until his retirement in 1958.

The New “Figuremaster”

With time and personnel again available for product development, the postwar years were devoted to building many new operational advantages around the “Silent Speed” design. In 1948 Marchant introduced a handsome new model called the “Figuremaster.”

This calculator stayed in the line until 1959. It was another first for Marchant, this time in styling. Departing from the “boxy” appearance of all full keyboard calculators of all makes, Marchant gave the “Figuremaster” flowing contours and soft, easy-on-the-eyes colors. Equally modernized on the inside, new and improved mechanisms provided 18 new features for greater utility and automatic operation.

Over the next decade, Marchant’s growth and sales volume mounted steadily. A strong line of calculators having the “Figuremaster” styling was created. In 1950 the “Figurematic,” a simplified automatic model, built to sell in a new medium-price bracket, was placed on the market.

Various modifications of the two basic models were produced to meet special figure work requirements. Semi-automatic models, selling in the lower bracket of the Marchant price range, completed the line.

Marchant Calculators, Inc.

Toward the end of the decade, in 1956, sales volume reached a record high of $27,800.653. Factory and administrative operations had grown to such proportions that 13 different building locations were required. The number of sales office in the United States and Canada had reached 200. Worldwide marketing was conducted through distributors in 80 countries.
In 1952 the company’s name was changed from Marchant Calculating Machine Company to Marchant Calculators Inc. For many years the company had been using the world ‘calculator’ as a generic name of its products in preference to the unwieldy and old-fashioned term “calculating machine.

From the beginning, Marchant had supplied its worldwide market from one manufacturing plant in California. In the spring of 1956 the company’s first factory on foreign soil, in West Germany, was completed and placed in operation as an assembly plant. Calculator output from this factory made possible selling in dollar shortage countries that had German currency with which to finance imports.