A patent for the adding machine was granted to Dorr Eugene Felt of Chicago, Illinois. His Comptometer was the first practical key-driven calculator with sufficient speed, reliablility and economic benefit. He called his original prototype the "Macaroni box", a rough model that Felt created over the year-end holidays in 1884-85. The casing was a grocery macaroni box, assembled with a jackknife using meat skewers as keys, staples as key guides and elastic bands for springs. Door improved his design, producing his earliest commercial wooden-box Comptometer from 1887 thru 1903, leading to the first steel case Model A (1904 that would be standard for the remainder for all "shoebox" models. Electric motor drive was introduced in the 1920's.

The last hand-cranked (magneto) telephones in the United States went out of service as 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, Maine, were switched to direct-dial service. Prior to that time a resident's number could be as short as 33. Those living close enough to the telephone office might get to answer the phone, even if they were outside because the operator could just yell out the window! The last hand-cranked telphone call in Bryant pond was made the following day, on 12 Oct 1983.