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Who Was the Inventor of the Calculator? Key Facts, Dates and Stories

For most of us today, whipping out to crunch some numbers is second nature. However, mechanical devices for calculation have a long and fascinating history stretching back centuries before electronics took over.

In 1642, French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal invented one of the first mechanical calculators at just 18 years old. Called the Pascaline, it could only add and subtract but worked by a clever arrangement of gears and dials. Pascal built about 50 models of his device to help his father, a tax collector.

Over 30 years later, Gottfried Leibniz improved on Pascal’s design to create the first calculator that could multiply and divide. Leibniz spent two decades perfecting his 鈥渟tepped reckoner鈥� machine. His dream was to create a calculator to perform all arithmetic operations.

Mechanical calculators continued to advance in the 19th century. In 1820, Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar created the highly successful Arithmometer. It was the first mass-produced calculator reliable enough for general office use. For the next half-century, arithmometers were widely used for payroll, insurance, and other accounting functions.

By the 1960s, the transition from mechanical to electronic computing was underway. The first desktop electronic calculators emerged, using hundreds of vacuum tubes. Just a few years later, the invention of transistors enabled hand-held, portable electronic calculators. Companies like Texas Instruments brought them to the mass consumer market in the late 1960s.

Of course, today鈥檚 smartphones pack more computing power than room-sized computers of the past.

There is so much more to learn about these great people, let us look at them below:

Key Dates

• 1642 – Blaise Pascal invents the Pascaline, the first mechanical calculator for addition and subtraction.
• 1673 – Gottfried Leibniz created the Stepped Reckoner, the first calculator that can multiply and divide.
• 1820 – Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar patents the arithmometer, the first successful commercial mechanical calculator.
• 1884 – William Seward Burroughs patents the first practical adding machine.
• 1921 – Edith Clarke designs an early electrical graphical calculator.
• 1967 – Jack Kilby invented the first calculator built on a single integrated circuit chip.
• 1971 – Busicom LE-120A 鈥淗ANDY鈥� is the first handheld calculator.
• 1972 – Hewlett Packard releases the HP-35, the first scientific pocket calculator.
• 1985 – Casio brings the first commercially available graphing calculator to market.
• 1989 – Texas Instruments unveils the TI-68, an early graphing calculator.

Key Facts and Stories

1. The first-ever calculator was invented by Pascal Blaise

, , via Wikimedia Commons

Pascal was motivated to invent a calculator by the tedious calculations required by his father’s work as a tax collector. At the time, all calculations were done manually, which was a time-consuming and error-prone process. Pascal’s calculator, known as the Pascaline, was the first mechanical calculator to be invented. It was a complex device with thousands of moving parts, but it was surprisingly effective. The Pascaline could add and subtract numbers up to eight digits long.

Pascal’s calculator was a major breakthrough in the history of computing. It was the first machine that could perform calculations automatically, and it paved the way for the development of more advanced calculators and computers. The Pascaline was not widely used during Pascal’s lifetime, but it became more popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was eventually replaced by electronic calculators in the 20th century, but it remains an important milestone in the history of computing.

2. Pascal had more than 50 prototypes of the first calculator

Blaise Pascal designed the first mechanical calculator in 1642. After creating 50 prototypes, he finally presented the device to the public in 1645, dedicating it to Pierre S茅guier, who was then the chancellor of France. Pascal continued to improve on his original design and built around twenty more machines during the next decade. In 1649, King Louis XIV of France granted Pascal a royal privilege, similar to a patent, which gave him the exclusive right to design and manufacture calculating machines in France. Today, there are nine Pascal calculators in existence, with most of them on display in European museums.

3. About 20 of Pascal鈥檚 calculators were sold

, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

By 1654, Blaise Pascal had managed to sell around twenty Pascaline machines, which were mechanical calculators. However, today only nine of those machines are known to exist. Despite its innovative design, the high cost and complexity of the Pascaline proved to be a hurdle in its further sales, and the production of the machine ceased in that year. Pascal then shifted his focus towards religion and philosophy, producing works like the Lettres provinciales and the Pens茅es.

The 300th anniversary celebration of Pascal’s invention of the mechanical calculator was marked during World War II, when France was under German occupation, and the main event was held in London, England. Speeches given during the celebration acknowledged Pascal’s practical achievements, despite being already known in the field of pure mathematics, and praised his creative imagination. The event also highlighted how ahead of his time both Pascal and his invention were.

4. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz improved the functions of Pascal鈥檚 calculator

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German mathematician and philosopher who lived from 1646 to 1716. He was a brilliant polymath who made significant contributions to mathematics, philosophy, physics, and law.  Blaise Pascal鈥檚 calculator inspired Leibniz, but he wanted to create a machine that could do more than just add and subtract. He wanted a machine that could also multiply and divide.

In 1672, Leibniz invented the Stepped Reckoner, which was the first mechanical calculator that could perform all four basic arithmetic operations. The Stepped Reckoner was a complex device with thousands of moving parts, but it was surprisingly effective.

In addition to his work on calculators, Leibniz also made significant contributions to the development of calculus and binary arithmetic. He is also credited with inventing the Leibniz wheel, which is a mechanism that is used in many modern calculators.

Leibniz was a brilliant and innovative thinker. His work on calculators and other computing devices has had a major impact on our world. We are grateful to Leibniz for his contributions to the field of computing.

5. French inventor Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar, marked a major milestone in the development of mechanical calculators

, , via Wikimedia Commons

The Arithmometer, invented in 1820 by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar was the first commercially successful calculator that could reliably perform all four basic mathematical operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Previous mechanical calculators like Pascal’s Pascaline and Leibniz’s Stepped Reckoner could only add, subtract, multiply or divide. But de Colmar’s innovative design implemented a stepped drum mechanism that could execute complex calculations through a system of pinwheels and gears. This pioneering implementation of a “stepped drum” allowed result digits to be read out on rotating dials.

The Arithmometer was a pivotal achievement that helped popularize mechanical calculation. De Colmar’s company produced and sold it across Europe and America for decades. The device was widely adopted by businesses, banks, insurance firms and government offices to automate routine arithmetic and accounting work. Its commercial success demonstrated the value and utility of automated calculation machines for mundane numerical work, paving the way for more innovations in the field.

6. William Seward Burroughs I invented the first adding machine in 1885

American inventor William Seward Burroughs I invented the first practical and commercially successful adding machine in 1885. His innovative mechanical calculator used a clever series of gears, wheels, and steps to quickly and reliably perform addition operations. Burroughs founded the American Arithmometer Company in 1886 to manufacture and market his device.

The Burroughs adding machine was simpler than previous calculators like the Arithmometer since it focused only on addition rather than all four math functions. However, its efficient and reliable mechanical adding capabilities made it very popular with banks, businesses, and government offices in the United States and Europe.

The pioneering work of Burroughs introduced fast automated addition to the business world through mass-produced machines. Later adding machines would build on his foundations to also incorporate other operations like subtraction. However, Burroughs’ adding machine marked a crucial early milestone in the evolution of mechanical calculation and automation. His inventions helped pave the way for more advancements in the field.

7. Edith Clarke invented the first graphic calculator

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Though trained as an engineer, Edith Clarke struggled to find work in that field. She ended up working for General Electric supervising computers in the Turbine Engineering Department. During this role, Clarke invented an important early graphing calculator in 1921. Her device could quickly solve complex equations involving electric current, voltage, and impedance that were essential for power transmission line engineering.

Clarke’s graphical calculator performed these line equation solutions involving hyperbolic functions ten times faster than previous methods.

In 1925 she was granted a patent for this pioneering graphing calculation device. Clarke’s work demonstrated women’s contributions to advancing calculator technology at a time when few worked in engineering. Her graphing calculator invention accelerated solutions for power transmission line engineering problems.

8. A prisoner, Curt Herzstark, created the first hand-held calculator

While the Austrian engineer Curt Herzstark made critical contributions to developing the world’s first commercially successful handheld mechanical calculator, his work and the Curta’s launch spanned over a decade. Herzstark initially conceived of a small, crank-operated calculating device before World War II.

While imprisoned by the Nazis from 1943 to 1945, he continued refining the Curta’s design. After being freed at the war’s end, Herzstark collaborated with businessperson Josef Maier to manufacture the calculator.

The Curta was launched in 1948 as the first reliable pocket-sized mechanical calculator. Although previous attempts at portable calculators existed, Curta’s ingenious design and precision engineering allowed efficient handheld mechanical calculation for the first time. Herzstark’s perseverance through extreme hardship paired with Maier’s commercialization ultimately brought the vision of a handheld calculator to reality. The Curta’s portability and capabilities made it a game-changing innovation.

9. The first commercial graphic calculator was produced in 1985

, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In the mid-1980s, advancements in LCD screens and electronics allowed calculator companies to move beyond basic scientific calculators and develop more advanced graphing capabilities. Casio led the way, releasing the first commercially available graphing calculator, the Casio fx-7000G, in 1985. This pioneering device could plot functions and create graphs on its LCD display. Sharp soon followed with its own graphing calculator in 1986 as competition increased.

By the late 1980s, major calculator makers including Hewlett Packard (1988) and Texas Instruments (1990) had joined the market. Their graphing calculators became extremely popular in high school and college math and science courses. This first generation of commercial graphing calculators marked an important milestone in putting powerful graphical calculation abilities into students’ hands.

The relatively affordable devices made visualizing and analyzing mathematical functions through plots and graphs accessible to a broad range of users. Their impact contributed greatly to the modern ubiquity of graphing calculators in math education.

10. Electronic calculators using vacuum tubes emerged in the 1960s

In the early days, companies that made mechanical calculators started producing the first electronic calculators. These included the Sumlock Comptometer in Britain, Friden in America, and the Nippon Calculating Machine in Japan. Other electronics companies also jumped into the new calculator market. They saw an opportunity with this emerging technology. These included Hayakawa Electric (later Sharp) and as well as Hewlett-Packard and Wang Laboratories in America.

The first electronic calculators made by these companies were large, heavy, and expensive machines. But within a few years, they were able to make calculators that were lighter, smaller, and cheaper. The advances in electronic technology allowed them to shrink the size and cost dramatically.

calculators evolved over centuries through the work of inventors building on one another’s ideas. Key milestones accelerated their capabilities from purely mechanical to programmable graphics. Today’s calculators descend from a long innovative lineage.