Carl Friden

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Carl Friden (April 11, 1891-April 29, 1945) was a Swedish born American mechanical engineer and businessman who founded the Friden Calculating Machine Company (Friden, Inc.) in San Leandro, California in 1934. Prior to founding his own company, Friden had been a chief designer for the Marchant Calculating Machine Co. of Oakland His machines were robust and quickly became popular.

Friden's company introduced a calculator that included a square root function in 1952, then went on in 1963 to introduce the model EC-130, the fully transistorized electronic calculator. In 1965 the company was purchased by the Singer Corporation.

[edit] Early life and career

In 1913 Friden travelled to England to assemble match machines for his company. In 1914 he travelled to Australia with the same purpose in mind, but was stranded there when World War I broke out. In the interim he worked on his ideas for designing a more reliable calculator. Two years later he headed to San Francisco on an American steamer to get part way home, but that is where he stayed. He found his place in the Marchant Calculating Machine Company within a year. While there he introduced his new design which reduced the number of calculator parts by one-third, thus increasing their reliability.

[edit] Personal

Friden married Hildur Victoria Svenson in 1914 in Stockholm, Sweden. They had two children, Stanley Mauritz Victor and Barbro. He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Lutheran, and a Republican.