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Pascaline
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One of the world's first mechanical calculators
Quick Facts
Also called:
Arithmetic Machine
Key People:
Blaise Pascal
Related Topics:
calculator
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One of the world's first mechanical calculators
One of the world's first mechanical calculators The Pascaline, or Arithmetic Machine, was a French monetary (nondecimal) calculator designed by Blaise Pascal about 1642. Numbers could be added by turning the wheels (located along the bottom of the machine) clockwise and subtracted by turning the wheels counterclockwise. Each digit in the answer was displayed in a separate window, visible at the top of the photograph.

Pascaline

technology
Also known as: Arithmetic Machine
Written by
Michael R. Swaine
Coauthor of Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer.
Michael R. SwaineAll
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Pascaline, the first calculator or adding machine to be produced in any quantity and actually used. The Pascaline was designed and built by the French mathematician-philosopher Blaise Pascal between 1642 and 1644. It could only do addition and subtraction, with numbers being entered by manipulating its dials. Pascal invented the machine for his father, a tax collector, so it was the first business machine too (if one does not count the abacus). He built 50 of them over the next 10 years.

Paul A. Freiberger Michael R. Swaine