The adding machine was invented by a nineteen-year-old French boy named Blaise Pascal way back in the year 1642. Blaise made it to help his father in his work. The man was a clerk, and all day long he had to do a tremendous number of mathematical calculations. The boy’s invention consisted of a wooden box with sixteen dials on it. By turning the dials, one could do simple addition and subtraction very quickly.
There were two prior attempts to create such a machine which were discovered only recently. One is of Wilhelm Schickard who invented a mechanical calculator in 1623. Apparently only two prototypes were built and their location is unknown (if they survived at all). Only in the 1950's when letters of Schickard were discovered was this information revealed. From diagrams in these letters it was possible to reconstruct his machine.
An even earlier attempt was made by none other than Leonardo da Vinci. In 1967 some of his notes were found in the National Museum of Spain, which included a description of a machine bearing a certain resemblance to Pascal's machine. A model of da Vinci's machine was made with the help of these notes.
Works Cited: The Adding Machine. 1997-2007. Ideafinder.com. 24 June 2009.
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/addmachine.htm
~Angela
I think that our technology is going up really fast. In early ages people didn't had calculator, they use to do their calculation with their minds. I still remember that when i first asked for a calculator from my dad, my grandfather was right next to me and he told me that during this time they did not use calculator they had to do everything using their brain. When my dad was younger they had calculator, but they were not allowed to use them. first i thought it was really silly, but later i understood that without calculator you can do a lot. i never used a calculator when i was in India, but when i came here i started using it. Calculation was easy for me but using calculator was harder. today's technology is so good that even if you plug in the formula or an equation you will get the answer. I think that people did a really good job inventing a calculator.
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