Meiwa ALEXE Decimal Handy Calculator - Computer - In original box

This is an Alexe Decimal Handy Calculator, a 5-digit mechanical pocket calculator manufactured in Japan around 1965 by the Meiwa company. Its unique mechanism was designed and patented by Masaharu Nara.

There are five buttons along the top, one for each digit, and pressing one of these will add one the corresponding digit. There are two tabs on the right hand side. If the top one is pulled out, then the buttons will subtract instead of add. Calculation is very simple - set the top tab to addition or subtraction, whichever you want to do, and then press each button along the top as many times as the corresponding digit in the number you want to add or subtract.

The bottom tab is used for clearing the register. If you pull it out and push it back in, it decrements all the non-zero digits of the counter, so to fully clear the counter you pull and push that tab until all the digits have become zero.

The mechanism has some notable features. The counter's digits are displayed with the use of number wheels that alternately move clockwise and anticlockwise, i.e. the first wheel moves clockwise when you increase its digit, but if you increase the second digit its wheel moves anticlockwise. This allows for a carry mechanism that works directly from one number wheel to the next, without an intermediate wheel between them. This affects the clearing mechanism as well. When you pull the clearing tab, only the first, third and fifth digits are decremented, and it is when you push the tab back in that the second and fourth digits are decremented. Another clever detail is that pulling the clearing tab automatically pulls out the other tab so that the wheels are set for subtraction.


The calculator will be packed carefully.