The Tachylemme - Francis WEB

The TACHYLEMME is an invention from the french Casimir Louis CHAMBON.
According to the patent files, he deposited a first patent in 1876 for a calculating device, mainly aimed at the interest rates for various sums.
This patent can be viewed below (in French)

The machine looked like the one below, which I was lucky to purchase some time ago:

You will notice the signature on the top left, with the name of C.L. CHAMBON only as the "inventeur" .

To use this device, you select the sum that was borrowed using the 4 selectors. The top one is for the thousands (1000 to 9000), the second one for the hundreds (100 to 900), the third one for the tens (10 to 90) and finnaly the bottom one is for the units.
Then you locate the interest amount on the colum and add the 4 numbers. The interest rates were given from 1% to 6% with a .5 increment.

Later, Mr CHAMBON decided to create his own company with a friend, and you can find some device with the name CHAMBON & BAYE.


He deposited a new patent in 1889, for a different device that was supposed to be a "universal calculator". It was using the same principle as the Tachylemme, rotating drums with numbers printed on them. You can find the patent below (in french)


Overall, the device was very well constructed and gives this impression of luxury item from the 19th century (almost steampunk..).
Not many of these survived and you can find most of them in Museums around the world.

Below is a small video to show the device and explain its use.