Editing Comptometer (section)

===The first comptometers===
[[Dorr Felt]] began his work on the comptometer in 1882<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cutter|first1=William Richard|title=American Biography: A New Cyclopedia|date=1931|publisher=Pub. under the direction of the American historical society|page=52|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=35cMAQAAMAAJ&q=Comptometer+1882|language=en}}</ref>
and started building the first prototype during the American [[Thanksgiving (United States)|Thanksgiving]] holidays of 1884. Because of his limited amount of money, he used a macaroni box for the outside box, and skewers, staples and rubber bands for the mechanism inside. It was finished soon after [[New Year's Day]], 1885. This prototype, called the macaroni box,<ref>(fr) Jean Marguin, ''Histoire des instruments et machines à calculer'', page 125, Hermann, 1994</ref> is in the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], United States.

Shortly after, Robert Tarrant, the owner of a [[Chicago]] workshop, gave Felt a salary of $6 a week, a bench to work on, and what would add up to $5,000 to build his first practical machine, which he finished in the autumn of 1886.

By September 1887, eight production machines had been built.