Computer Timeline – Page 22 – Yet another site for bright people, crafted by Georgi Dalakov

16 Apr 1886

Eduard Selling

In April 1886, Eduard Selling, a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Würzburg, Germany, received a patent for a calculating machine with a very interesting construction. The driving force behind this invention was (as usual) the personal need for a better calculating tool. It’s known that since..Read More

08 Jun 1886

Lawrence Swem

In June and November 1885, Lawrence Wilson Swem (1856-1917), a jeweler of West Liberty, Muscatine, Iowa, filled two patent applications for a simple keyboard-operated adding machine, somewhat similar to the earlier adder of Marshall Cram from 1877 and very similar to the later adding machine Centigrpah of Arthur Shattuck from..Read More

15 Jun 1886

Peter Lindholm

In November 1885 Peter T. Lindholm, a professor of mathematics, theology, and pedagogics, at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, applied for, and on 15 June 1886 received a patent for a key-driven one-column adding machine (US patent №343770). In the same 1886 Lindholm received also a Canadian patent for five..Read More

31 Aug 1886

Charles Weiss

Starting from 1881, Charles Kruse of New York was the president of several companies like Kruse Check and Adding Machine Company, Kruse Manufacturing Company, Kruse Cash Register Company, etc. The companies of Kruse made sewing machine parts, gas and steam engine parts, cash registers, adding machines, and typewriters. ruse was..Read More

26 Oct 1886

Frank Bone

In December 1885 Frank A. Bone of Lebanon, Ohio, county surveyor of Warren County, Ohio, applied for, and on 26 October 1886, he got a patent for a one-column (used for adding columns of figures) keyboard adder (US patent Nr. 351487). Frank invented this device (most probably) upon request of..Read More

29 Mar 1887

Brainard Smith

In May and June 1886, Brainard Fowler Smith, a merchant from Sacramento, California, filed applications for two patents for keyboard-driven adding machines. The patents (US360118 and US363972) had been granted the next year (March and May 1887), as the second patent (US363972) was granted to Brainard Smith and Arthur Shattuck, and..Read More

31 May 1887

Arthur Shattuck

At the beginning of the 1880s, the young county and court clerk of Sonoma, California, Arthur Ewing Shattuck (1854-1932), driven by the need to facilitate the tedious office calculation work, designed his first calculating device, which he patented in 1882. Later Shattuck became a holder of a total of five..Read More

27 Sep 1887

Samuel Austin

On 16 September 1886, Samuel E. Austin, an American inventor from Fort Valley, Georgia, filed a patent application for a keyboard-operated adding machine. The patent (see US patent Nr. 370719) was granted on 27 September 1887. In the same 1887, Austin filed another patent application for a keyboard-operated adding machine,..Read More

08 Apr 1888

Otto Lilienthal

No doubt, there are many celebrities, mentioned on our humble site as inventors of calculating devices, let’s mention only Leonardo Da Vinci, Blaise Pascal, Gottfried Leibniz, and other not-so-illustrious men. It’s time now to tell the story of Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal, the famous German pioneer of aviation, known as..Read More

12 Jun 1888

Albert Ludlum

In March 1887, Albert C. Ludlum (1867-1928), a young clerk in the Federal National Shoe & Leather Bank of the City of New York, applied for a patent for Adding and Writing Machine. The patent (No US384373), was granted in June 1888, then in 1891 the patent was reissued (pat...Read More