Braun Calculator - Black

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Dieter Rams remained design director of Braun until 1995 when he was succeeded by Peter Schneider. Between 1995 and 1997 he became the Executive Director of corporate identity affairs at Braun. In 1997 he left the company and retired emeritus from his position at Hochschule fϋr bildende Kϋnste. During his forty years at Braun, along with numerous colleagues and a core design team, he developed products to be manufactured at vast scale and used daily by millions of people. The product range Braun offers today spans from personal grooming devices to household utensils, from watches to products for dental care. The entertainment electronics and film/photo product, which were once extremely successful items, have been abandoned making the surviving designs prised collectable objects. Sought-after by fashionable consumers, Braun’s products were even celebrated in the work of the British pop artist Richard Hamilton, who played with the company’s logotype by replicating it in ‘Brown’ and ‘Hamilton’. Soon after his marriage, Braun left Vienna. He established mechanical workshops in Prague and Milan. In the following years, Braun became one of the most prominent instrument makers of his time. He was highly appreciated by the Imperial Engineer and Professor at the University of Vienna—Johann Jakob Marinoni. Braun worked as a surveyor in cadastral surveying of Milan for Marinoni between the years of 1719 to 1722. Kammeropticus et Mathematicus The German mechanic, constructor and optician Anton (Antonius) Braun (see biography of Anton Braun) (1686-1728) from Möhringen (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), was appointed in 1724 as a mechanician and optician of the imperial court in Vienna, Austria. In the same 1724 he started to design a calculating machine for the purposes of the court. Turning the crank adds the entered number to the result mechanism (12-place with complementary numbers shown), and the result is shown in the windows along the periphery of the cover (the silver-plated part). The setting mechanism can be rotated with respect to the result mechanism so that both multiplication and division are possible. The machine also featured a single-digit revolution counter. The machine had a single central adapting segment that allowed the number of special parts to be reduced. Below the setting is a set over vertical cylinders with nine rods at different lengths rising to the top. Although the machine did not function properly in every aspect, the idea of a central adapting segment was innovative. It was used extensively for several mechanical calculators 200 years later, for example, the Arithmometer . The Arithmometer is an early calculating machine, built in 1820 by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar of France.

When he arrived at Braun, Rams applied his architectural skills to the design of exhibition sets and offices, but became increasingly interested in products. Rams wrote his account of his early years at Braun in an open letter to Erwin Braun in 1979. In the letter, he details his introduction to design and his experience working among talented and engaging people at Braun. Initially Rams worked on a number of different projects for the company, from being involved on a project for a new showroom pavilion for the medical department, to working on Erwin Braun’s own house in Königstein. During this time he got an in depth understanding of how the company operated, developing good relationship with the various teams at Braun. Rams has always relied heavily on sketching to bring to life his design ideas, preferring a line drawing approach that he developed during his school days. Despite the advances of computer software and the widespread use of digital technologies by designers, Rams has resisted using these devices, favouring his sketching by hand method. Thus, the smaller the entered digit was, the later the adapting segment engaged and fewer cogs were moved. Multiplication was done by repeated revolutions of the crank, as a place-shift mechanism enables multiplying with multi-digit multipliers. Subtraction (and division) were done using the 9-complements of digits.

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This machine probably was only begun in the workshop of Braun, but after his death (he died on 20 April 1728 from an infection of the lungs) it was finished as late as in 1736 by his son and by the famous French mechanician Phillippe Vayringe (1684-1746), who was hired by the Emperor to fix the machine, kept in his collection. The machine (on its lid is engraved Braun invenit, Vayringae fecit) (Invented by Braun, manufactured by Vayringe) is now in the exposition of Deutsches Museum, Munich (see the first photo of the article and the photos below).

It seems Anton Braun actually designed two quite different internally calculating machines. Besides the device, presented to the Emperor, he designed also another much smaller calculating machine, similar in appearance to the first, but its calculating mechanism is almost identical to the Leupold’s machine and it is based on a ratchet-wheel. Complicated concepts showed in a simple way – this is a principle that weaves through all of Dieter Rams’ work, especially the Braun Lectron System. He finished his work in 1727, producing a calculating machine of a very good design and workmanship. When in 1727 he presented the machine to the Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI, he got into favour of the Emperor and was appointed as imperial instrument maker, and was granted with diamond chain, occupied with the portrait of the Emperor and a huge sum of money—10000 guilders. So even if you don’t need to use it, you crave to touch it. Braun hair dryer by Dieter Rams 9. Braun cylindric T 2 / TFG 2

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Anton Braun, an accomplish engineer of mechanics and a mathematician, was the creator of the first calculator for all four mathematical calculations. Hans Jacobus Braun also worked as mechanic and watchmaker, so Anton and his younger brother, Johann Georg both learned the basics of mechanics in their parental home. They were both interested in instrument making; however, Johann Georg never reached the technical brilliance of his older brother – Anton. I love Rams’ use of color, accents, and materials with archive pieces like the ET 33 calculator. So much restraint in terms of aesthetics but in the same vein, bright and bold decisions like the yellow "=" button. The gloss on the button faces is magic. The Series 9 Shaver (2019) In 1981 he became professor of industrial design at the Hochschule fϋr bildende Kϋnste, in Hamburg. Juggling between his design obligations at Braun and his teaching duties at the Art College he offered terms of up to five months for students to work with him in the Braun’s product design department.

I used to have this as a little one. To me, this was my iPhone, which today's kids already navigate well at a young age. It felt very intuitive, I guess because of its straightforward and clear design. Didn't help me much in math class, though. There is another calculating machine of Braun, still preserved in Technischen Museum in Wien (see the upper images), which had an engraved dedication to the Kaiser Karl VI and also the self-conscious signature “Antonius Braun S.C.M. Opticus et mathematicus”, with the year of completion in 1727. There is information however, that this machine is not the original one, made by Anton Braun in 1720s, but a copy, made in 1766 by his son—Anton Braun the Younger (1708-1776), who just like his father was a skilful optician and watchmaker.

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The radio-phonograph created in 1956 was one of his most iconic works for Braun, which secured the company’s success. Rams refined the design language he and Gugelot had adopted for the SK4 in the following year’s Atelier 1 hi-fi system and L1 loud speakers. Until then stereo systems had consisted of single units with integrated speakers, but Rams separated the speakers to make the receiver unit more compact. Subsequent developments in stereophonic technology ensured that this too soon became a standard. Determined to develop a coherent ‘family’ of products for Braun, Rams designed the Atelier 1 and L1 in the same proportions as the SK4. Consequently they could be used together with the L1 being added to the SK4 to amplify its sound. He then placed the L2 speaker on a slender metal stand – another innovation which was swiftly copied by Braun’s competitors. Braun came into favor of the Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI. He was appointed an imperial instrument maker and was given a 12 – diamond chain (value of 500 guilders), occupied with the portrait of the Emperor (kept now in the Museum in Rathaus Möhringen), and a huge sum of money—10,000 guilders.

Anton Braun died young. He was only 41 years old due to long-running lung disease. He died in Vienna on April 2, 1728. Next Up..The machine is commonly named Leupold-Braun-Vayringe machine, due to the fact, that the idea of the calculating mechanism was proposed by Leupold, the construction was made by Braun, while the actual manufacturing was made by Vayringe. Ada Lovelace – Complete Biography, History and Inventions: One of the most prominent figures in mathematics, Ada Lovelace did some advance work on the Analytical Engine. The 10,000 guilders were never paid out, however, because of war-related expenditures and financial difficulties of the Viennese Court under Empress Maria Theresia, the daughter of Karl VI. Nevertheless, Braun bequeathed half of his assets to his hometown. 6,000 guilders were used for charity and the construction of a hospital. What Did Anton Braun do? The machine’s six-place setting mechanism is under the form of six circular segments arranged in a circle on the top, with nine levers each (for digits 1 to 9), which move the relevant pins radially outwards on the pin-wheels below.