Cesar Caze
The simple adding device of the Frenchman Cesar Caze (1641-1719), which he called Nouvelle machine arithmétique and created around 1696, could be considered as one of the most basic calculating devices, which can be invented, a simplified version of the Abaque Rhabdologique of Claude Perrault. etween 1704 and 1708 Caze..Read More
George Brown
George Brown (1650-1730) is a Scottish arithmetician and dissenting minister, known primarily for the invention of an arithmetical instrument, called Rotula Arithmetica—a very simple and not very successful calculating device for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It seems Brown invented Rotula Arithmetica sometime in the 1690s, as in 1698 he..Read More
Giovanni Poleni
In 1709 the young professor of astronomy, meteorology, and mathematics and Marquis of the Holy Roman Empire Giovanni Poleni published his first book—Miscellanea, a small collection of dissertations on physics (it was a sort of doctoral thesis to obtain the University appointment). Miscellanea includes dissertations on barometers, thermometers, and conical..Read More
Henry Mill
The history of the modern computer keyboard (an input device, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as mechanical levers) begins with a direct inheritance from the invention of the typewriter. So, who was the genius, who invented the typewriter (and why the hell the layout of..Read More
Basile Bouchon
The first industrial application of a (semi)-automated machine was made in the early eighteenth century (at the beginning of the 1720s) by a modest textile worker from Lyon, France, named Basile Bouchon. asile Bouchon, working in one of the many silk centers in Lyon (starting in the 16th century, Lyon..Read More
Lépine
The Machine Arithmetique of Lépine (sent for approval to l’Academie Royale des Sciences in 1725) was firstly described in the 1735 book of Jean Gallon Machines et inventions approuvées par l’Academie Royale des Sciences, depuis son établissment jusqu’a présent; avec leur description (see Gallon description of Lepine). The machine of..Read More
Jonathan Swift
We don’t know if the venerable Ramon Llull had a sense of humor, and if he evinced it by designing the logical machine, described in his medieval Ars magna generalis ultima of 1305. But we can be quite sure, that more than four centuries later such a sense of humor was evinced..Read More
Jacob Leupold
In 1727, after the death of the German scientist and engineer Jacob Leupold was published the 8th volume of his encyclopedia Theatrum Machinarium. This volume, entitled Theatrum arithmetico-geometricum is the best-illustrated work on calculation and measurement published during the 18th century. It describes and illustrates the calculating devices and machines..Read More
Anton Braun
When in 1724 the German mechanic Anton Braun (1686-1728) got an appointment as a mechanic and optician of the imperial court in Vienna, Austria, he started to design a calculating machine for the purposes of the court. Braun finished his work in 1727, producing a calculating machine of very good..Read More