Subject areaArtificial intelligence
Also known asW. T. Odhner
Willgodt Theophil Odhner (1845 - Saint Petersburg, 1905) was a Swedish engineer who worked in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and invented the pinwheel calculator.
According to John Wolff, all calculators of this type derive, to a greater or lesser extent, from his designs of the 1870s and 1880s.
His contribution lies in the mechanism: each digit is set on a disc from which zero to nine pins protrude. It differs from the Leibniz stepped drum used by earlier machines and is far more compact, so it made the calculator small enough to sit on an office desk.
In Saint Petersburg he founded his own factory, the Maschinenfabrik W. T. Odhner, which made arithmometers from 1874 and produced the Original-Odhner St. Petersbourg model. His design was also licensed in Germany, where Franz Trinks developed it into the Brunsviga. He is one of the European protagonists of the technologies of intelligence: a Swede working in Russia whose design was developed in Germany, before production returned to Sweden with his successors.
Source: Wikidata Q2034582 e Wikipedia in inglese, voce Willgodt Theophil Odhner, consultate il 21/10/2026, per date e tappe della biografia; John Wolff per la derivazione delle calcolatrici a pioli dai suoi progetti degli anni 1870-1880.
An example
The case below is constructed, because the name does not yet appear in the articles. A manufacturing company that designs a component simple to produce and repair, and sees competitors adopt it, follows Odhner's path: his mechanism spread precisely because it was compact and easy to replicate.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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