The first practical calculator was invented and produced by Pascal in the seventeenth century. It performed additions and subtractions and was mainly used for money calculations.
Blaise Pascal was born on 29 June 1623 in Clermont, France. He was educated at Clermont and in Paris.
He was a gifted child learning geometry and mathematics from age 12 and publishing a paper on conic sections at 16.
Did You Know?
Why calculator and phone numeric keypads are different?
The telephone dial was used to generate electricital pulses to drive exchange switches and had numbers arranged 1234567890. Dialling 1 generated one pulse and so on to 9 generating nine pulses. 0 generated ten pulses (as zero pulses would not be detectable).
This distinction in number layouts between calculators with the zero at the low end and telephones with zero at the high end has been perpetuated through generations of equipment to the present day.
The Pascal family moved to Rouen in 1639 where his father took a job as tax collector for the region. Pascal invented the mechanical calculator in 1641 partly to help his father in collecting taxes.
The calculator was named the Pascaline and could only add and subtract. Numbers were entered using dials connected to a mechanism of wheels and cogs. The calculator was designed to cope with the multiple base currency of the time.
The Pascaline calculator used dials to enter numbers with the digits arranged 0123456789. The home position was 0 (as the dial did not need to be turned at all to add or subtract zero); next was 1 where the mechanism moved one position, and so on for numbers 2 to 9 each moving the mechanism a further position. The dials were connected to a mechanism of gears and cogs. The answer was shown on a series of wheels with each showing a digit through a small window.
The Pascaline went into commercial production and was sold for a number of years in the mid seventeenth century.
Pascal died of cancer in 1662 in Port Royal.
