Anton Braun

The german mechanic, constructor and optician Anton Braun (1686-1728) from Möhringen, south Germany, was appointed in 1724 as a mechanician and optician of the imperial court in Vienna, Austria, and started to design a calculating machine for the purposes of the court. He finished his work in 1727, producing a calculating machine of a very good design and workmanship. When in 1727 he presented the machine to the Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI, he got into favor of the Emperor and was appointed as a imperial instrument maker, granted with diamond chain, occupied with the portrait of the emperor and a huge sum of money—10000 guilders.

The calculating mechanism of this machine was based on the pin-wheel (or sprocket wheel), invented by Leibniz and Poleni. It is clear, that Braun was acquainted with the encyclopedia Theatrum Arithmetico–Geometricum of Leupold, where is described the machine of Poleni. But in contrast to the machine of Poleni, the Braun's was a small, easy for use and perfectly manufactured device, which actually was the first easy to operate mechanical calculating machine.

The original device from Braun has not survived to the present day, but later on (in 1766) a copy of this machine was produced by his son—Anton Braun the Younger (1708-1776), who like his father was a famous optician and watchmaker.

Braun actually designed two calculating machines. Besides the device, presented to the Emperor, he designed also another much smaller calculating machine, similar in appearance to the first, but its calculating mechanism is almost identical to the Leupold's machine and is based on a ratchet-wheel. This machine probably was only begun in the workshop of Braun, but after his death (he died on 20 April 1728 from the infection of the lungs) was produced in 1736 by the famous french mechanician Phillippe Vayringe (1684-1746). The machine (on its lid is engraved Braun invenit, Vayringae fecit) (Invented by Braun, manufactured by Vayringe) is now in the exposition of Deutsches Museum, Munich (see the photo below).

The calculating machine of Leupold-Braun-Vayringe from 1736 (© Deutsches Museum, Munich)

There are also 3 modern replicas of the machine, one of them is very beautiful with its transparent glass lid (see the photo below).

A copy of the calculating machine of Braun-Vayringe from 1736 with a glass lid