What is the machine on Jack Lemon's desk in The Apartment?

What is the machine in this picture: make, model, and function?
The scene is a contemporary 1960 insurance office.
Presumably the machine is more than an adding machine and less than a computer.
Sorry about the low res image.

You can't tell from the still, but the upper carriage moves a lot. Why?
Jack-Lemon.JPG

d-glitch

Asked: 2013-01-02

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2 Solutions

science-itCommented: 2013-01-02

It's an Electro-mechanical calculator.

http://www.oldcalculatormuseum.com/fridenstw.html

LVL 37

TommySzalapskiCommented: 2013-01-02

The carriage moves a lot because it prints the output (similar to a typewriter).

LVL 27

d-glitchAuthor Commented: 2013-01-02

>> science-it
Thanks for the great link.

>> TommySzalapski
Maybe, but I didn't notice any paper output in the movie.
And I think multiplying required a series of mechanical shift-and-add operations.

If you liver near Chicago, you can get one for $10.

Thanks a lot.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-FRIDEN-CALCULATOR-ST10-/321046063837?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item4abfd62add

LVL 16

dhsindyRetired considering supplemental income.Commented: 2013-01-02

Looks like a Friden STW-10 that was manufactured from about 1949 thru 1966.
Friden-STW-10.jpg

LVL 16

dhsindyRetired considering supplemental income.Commented: 2013-01-02

The EC-130 all electronic was introduced in 1965 or so spelling the end. The STW-10 was called "The Cadillac of Calculators". We still used them to calculate target data in the mid 1960s for USAF practice missions.

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What is the machine on Jack Lemon's desk in The Apartment?

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