![]() According to the company’s website, customers could purchase the machine for $83, 210 (or rent it for $1,760 a month). The machine was housed in several large cabinets. Photo Credit: IBM Device Name: IBM 608 Inventor: IBMĪ Brief History: The IBM 608 was the first calculating machine to use solid-state transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The Arithmometer was the only type of mechanical calculator commercialized from 1878 to 1887 worldwide, and was still in use up to World War I. Interesting Fact: The production debut of the Arithmometer in 1851 launched the mechanical calculator industry. The machine featured a second result display for subtraction and division as well as a multiplication gear. ![]() Like Hahn, Thomas also based his calculator on the stepped drum mechanism of Leibniz. Photo Credit: Cornell Device Name: Arithmometer Inventor: Charles Xavier Thomas de ColmarĪ Brief History: The arithmometer was the first commercially successful calculating machine to complete all four basic operations - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division - according to IBM. 1820: First Commercially Produced Mechanical Calculator Interesting Fact: Although the first working copy of the device was ready in 1773, the calculator was not demonstrated until 1778 because of Hahn’s difficulty with the reliability of machine’s tens-carrying mechanism. Hahn’s calculator featured a set of twelve drums in a circular arrangement that could be activated by a crank located in the axis of the drums. He based his calculator on the “Stepped Reckoner” calculating machine that was developed by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1672. ![]() ![]() Photo Credit: History-Computer Device Name: n/a Inventor: Philip Matthäus HahnĪ Brief History: Hahn aspired to design a machine that would help him calculate the parameters of the clocks and planetariums he enjoyed making, according to the History of Computers website. Interesting Fact: The letters Schickard wrote Kepler were written in Latin, the international language of science and scholarship in Central and Western Europe until the 17th century. Schickard’s “Calculating Clock” is composed of a multiplying device, a mechanism for recording intermediate results, and a 6-digit decimal adding device. Prior to this discovery, Blaise Pascal, who developed the “Pascaline” adding machine in 1642, was regarded as the inventor of the first adding machine. Franz Hammer, a biographer of Johannes Kepler, claimed that drawings of a calculating clock had been discovered in two letters written by Schickard to Johannes Kepler in 16. Photo Credit: History-Computer Device Name: Calculating Clock Inventor: Wilhelm SchickardĪ Brief History: According to the History of Computers website, Wilhelm Schickard was credited with inventing the first adding machine after Dr. Here we share with you a visual history of some notable calculating firsts. Though still in use in today, the abacus was merely the beginning of mankind’s interest in calculating machines, which have evolved radically over the years. So human civilization invented the abacus, which the Computer History Museum suggests is “the oldest continuously used calculating tool aside from fingers.” ![]() Man had only his fingers and toes to use as counting devices - and counting sheep and crops using fingers, toes, rocks and shells will get you only so far. There once was a time when written numbers did not exist. ![]()
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