Pascalina is the first mechanical calculator in history . Invented by the great French thinker, philosopher, and mathematician Blaise Pascal at the age of nineteen in 1642 . The apparatus could add and subtract, and also multiply and divide by successive additions or subtractions. Pascal developed the invention to make it easier to collect taxes from his father. La Pascalina is a direct ancestor of modern calculators and a milestone in the computing career that continues to this day.
Summary
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- 1 Emergence
- 2 How did it work?
- 3 Impact
- 4 Sources
Emergence
The history of computing dates back to ancient times. The most remote example is the abacus , which was already used in 2000 BC. C. and is still used in Japan and Eastern Europe . The abacus is a very useful kind of computer , in which the sum can be physically seen, on the wires: the position of the movable balls constitutes a “memory” of the sum. But the abacus is not automatic and is not useful to handle high numbers. French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal invented in 1642the world’s first mechanical calculator, possibly to please her father, who was the area’s tax inspector. The machine worked flawlessly, transported the numbers from the units column to the tens column using a ratchet mechanism, more or less the same way a car speedometer transports numbers, and was fully functional . Blaise called it Pascalina. Gottfried Leibniz worked on perfecting Pascal’s addition machine, and tried to improve it so that it was capable of multiplying and dividing. He did this using a mechanical device called a Leibniz cylinder. Having perfected this machine, Leibniz focused his efforts on creating a method that would allow the decimal system to be converted to a binary-based one.
How did it work?
Blaise Pascal was the son of a tax collecting official. At age 18, Pascal, who occasionally helped his father write his official reports, asked himself the problem of how to save his father from the hassle of tedious arithmetic operations in which endless number relationships had to be added. At the age of 19, Pascal gave his father his first model of a mechanical calculator, with which he could calculate more quickly and safely.
Pascaline machine
The pascaline (at the top of the image) was slightly less bulky than a shoe box and was low and elongated. Inside it (on the right of the image) there were cogwheels connected to each other, forming a transmission chain, so that when one wheel rotated completely on its axis, it advanced one degree to the next.
Pascal , creator of the Pascalina
The wheels represented the decimal numbering system. Each wheel consisted of ten steps, for which it was conveniently marked with numbers from 9 to 0. The total number of wheels was eight, six wheels to represent the integers and two more wheels, on the far left, for decimals. With this arrangement, integers between 0’01 and 999,999’99 could be handled. The gear wheels were rotated by means of a crank. To add or subtract, all you had to do was turn the crank in the appropriate direction, so the wheels ran the necessary steps. When a wheel was at 9 and 1 was added, it would advance to the position marked by zero. At this point, a hook advanced the next wheel one step. In this way the addition operation was carried out.
Repercussion
Over the years, Pascal built around fifty models or versions of the pascaline, in his quest to get a calculator that really pleased him. Despite the technical quality of the invention, and the prestige it earned its author, the pascaline did not have an impact in the royal offices nor did it enjoy the acceptance of his father’s colleagues.
On the one hand, the scribes and accountants preferred to follow their assumptions, both as a matter of routine and for fear of being ousted by the effective machine. On the other, employers or entrepreneurs saw no benefit in purchasing expensive machines, when work was done manually at a very low price.
