Odhner 'Arithmometer' calculating machine, dating from the 1930s. Machines such as this would have been used by clerks at New Court to undertake complex calculations.
A clerk at New Court
In a photograph from a 1937 album of the staff of N M Rothschild & Sons, Mr Roland Williams can be seen using a machine very similar to this one in his New Court office. Roland Williams joined the firm in January 1931, eventually being appointed a Director in 1947. Roland Williams retired in 1970.
The Williams family had worked for the Rothschilds from beginning of 19th century. Of earlier generations, Sidney Williams, Roland Williams’ father, started in the Bullion Department, retiring in 1942. Roland Williams’ grandfather James joined New Court c.1865; his father had been a stockbroker used from time to time by Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836) founder of the London bank.
The Odhner Arithmometer was a very successful pinwheel calculator invented in Russia in 1873 by W. T. Odhner, a Swedish immigrant. Companies were set up all over the world to manufacture copies of Odhner's machine and, by the 1960s, with millions sold, it became one of the most successful mechanical calculators ever designed. It was made redundant with the appearance of electronic calculators in the early 1970s.
