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Calculating Machine

a piece of mechanism for assisting the human intellect in the performance of arithmetical operations. The system of logarithms, invented by the celebrated Napier of Merchistoun, in 1614, which is of the greatest assistance to mathematicians and others in the computation of figures, by shortening the ordinary operations, seems to have been instrumental in directing attention to the construction of an instrument by which arithmetical results could be produced by mechanical means, although the abacus had been long used in Europe and Asia for effecting calculations; and Napier himself had produced what may be termed an elementary calculating machine, consisting of rods with four faces, known as Napier's Bones. The first instrument which can be justly called a calculating machine, was invented by Blaise Pascal, trived for the calculation of sums of in 1642. It was more especially conmoney, although it would also perform the ordinary operations of arithmetic with numbers on the common, or decimal scale of notation. It consisted of a set of cylinders, with numbers marked on their external surface, moving on axles to which wheels were attached, with a certain number of notches cut in their circumference. Among the various machines of later invention, the two devised by Mr. Babbage, but never fully executed, are by far the more elaborate.

The invention of the brothers Scheutz was based on the description of Mr.

Babbage's difference machine, and is CALCULUS similar to it in general principles, though it varies from it in some points in the method adopted in its construction. It was purchased by Mr. Rathbone, of Albany, and presented by him to the Dudley Observatory in that city. More modern calculating machines are the slide-rule, adding machines, multiplying and dividing machines, and cash registers, which are described in detail under their several names.