On December 6, 1948, at 11.10 am, the patent for a calculation machine was granted in Milan that would mark Olivetti’s great success in the 1950s: the Divisumma 14 (followed by the 24th).
It was the first calculator in the world with a negative balance and capable of automatic division. And it was a very beautiful object to the point that one specimen is exhibited in the collection of the MoMA in New York. The design bears the signature of a star of that world, Marcello Nizzoli, who had entered the orbit of Adriano Olivetti in 1940 and who will sign another legendary product, the Lettera 22.
The project, on the other hand, is thanks to Natale Cappellaro, whose story deserves a film: he was born in Ivrea in 1902, the son of a very poor family (his father was a cobbler who cut farmers’ shoes) and after sixth grade and a brief experience in a printing shop he entered as an apprentice at Olivetti, for many only ” the factory”. He was not yet 14 years old, it was December 7, 1916. He ended up in the assembly department of the M1, the first typewriter model. From time to time he secretly took home some scraps of a keyboard; he was discovered, but instead of being fired he was given a raise. In fact, with those scraps Natale was assembling a mock keyboard prototype to train typists. Here his career begins.
After the war Adriano Olivetti discovers that Cappellaro has created another prototype, of a writing computer, Mk 14, from which Divisumma 14 will come. Cappellaro will eventually become the technical general manager of Olivetti in 1960 and two years later the University of Bari will grant him an honorary degree in Engineering. To him, who was only sixth grade but who made history.
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