Ramon Llull
Doctor Illuminatus Ramon Llull is an amazing figure in the field of philosophy during the Middle Ages, and one of the first people who tried to make logical deductions in a mechanical, rather than a mental way. His method was an early attempt to use logical means to produce knowledge...Read More
Leonardo da Vinci
In Leonardo’s manuscript Codex Madrid I, compiled by the genius in 1493, when he served at the Castle of Milan under duke Ludovico il Moro, there is a sketch, picturing a mechanism, which is very likely to be designed for calculating purposes. Leonardo da Vinci is probably the most diversely..Read More
Napier’s Logarithms
In July 1614 in Edinburgh, Scotland, was published a small book (57 pages of explanatory matter and 90 pages of tables) which will make a key advance in the use of mathematics. The book was Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio (Description of the Marvelous Canon of Logarithms), written by a Scotsman—John..Read More
Salomon de Caus
Jean Salomon de Caus was a French Huguenot engineer and scientist, who spent all his life moving across Europe. He worked as a hydraulic engineer and architect under Louis XIII from 1623 till his death in Paris in 1626. de Caus also was in service of the Prince of Wales..Read More
William Pratt
A simple calculating device with the fancy name Arithmetical Jewell was designed by William Pratt in the middle 1610s, and described in the book of the same name (The Arithmeticall Jewell: or the use of a small Table Whereby is speedily wrought, as well all Arithmetical workes in whole Numbers,..Read More
Napier’s Bones
At the end of 1617 in Edinburgh after the death of John Napier was published (in the Latin language, which was a common practice then) his small book—Rabdologiae seu Numerationis per Virgulas libri duo. Looking to ease his own difficulties in calculating logarithmic tables, and impatient with the tedious and..Read More
Wilhelm Schickard
One of the most important events in the life of the modest deacon of Nürtingen, Wilhelm Schickard, was his meeting in October 1617, with the great astronomer Johann Kepler. Obviously, during this meeting, Kepler immediately recognized the massive intellect of the young Wilhelm and encouraged his occasions with sciences, which..Read More
Blaise Pascal
The Roulette ou Roue Paschaline (celebrated as Pascaline in France and abroad) of the great french scientist Blaise Pascal was for more than three centuries considered the first mechanical calculator in the world, as the Rechenuhr of Wilhelm Schickard was not widely known until the late 1950s. Pascal most probably..Read More
Thomas Hobbes
The prominent English philosopher Thomas Hobbes is considered by some historians as one of the prophets of AI (Artificial Intelligence), primarily for his proclamation By ratiocination, I mean computation, in his 1651 book Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly called simply..Read More