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| The adding machine was invented by a nineteen-year-old French boy named Blaise Pascal way back in the year 1642. Blaise made it to help his father in his work. The man was a clerk, and all day long he had to do a tremendous number of mathematical calculations. The boy’s invention consisted of a wooden box with sixteen dials on it. By turning the dials, one could do simple addition and subtraction very quickly. | ||
 | There were two prior attempts to create such a machine which were discovered only recently. One is of Wilhelm Schickard who invented a mechanical calculator in 1623. Apparently only two prototypes were built and their location is unknown (if they survived at all). Only in the 1950's when letters of Schickard were discovered was this information revealed. From diagrams in these letters it was possible to reconstruct his machine.An even earlier attempt was made by none other than Leonardo da Vinci. In 1967 some of his notes were found in the National Museum of Spain, which included a description of a machine bearing a certain resemblance to Pascal's machine. A model of da Vinci's machine was | |
Replica, made by E Rognon in 1926. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), was France's most celebrated mathematician and physicist. This calculator is an exact replica of an original calculating machine preserved in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers at Paris. It was completed by Pascal in 1642, when he was only 19, to aid his father in his business; it was designed for addition and subtraction, using a stylus to move the number wheels. Although it became well-known it could not be mass produced.
