1625 AD |
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| As was previously noted, determining who invented the first mechanical calculator is somewhat problematical. Many references cite the French mathematician, physicist, and theologian, Blaise Pascal as being credited with the invention of the first operational calculating machine called the Arithmetic Machine. | However, Pascal's claim to fame notwithstanding, the German astronomer and mathematician Wilhelm Schickard wrote a letter to his friend Johannes Kepler about fifteen years before Pascal started developing his Arithmetic Machine. (Kepler, a German astronomer and natural philosopher, was the first person to realize (and prove) that the planets travel around the sun in elliptical orbits.) | |
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| In his letter, Schickard wrote that he had built a machine that "...immediately computes the given numbers automatically; adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides". Unfortunately, no original copies of Schickard's machine exist, but working models have been constructed from his notes. | ||
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| See also: | |
Leonardo da Vinci's mechanical calculator John Napier and Napier's Bones |
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| These notes are abstracted from the book Bebop BYTES Back (An Unconventional Guide to Computers) Copyright Information |
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