The pioneers

Leonardo da Vinci (end of the 15th century)

Wilchelm Schickard (1623)—the Calculating Clock

Blaise Pascal (1642)—the Pascaline

Tito Livio Burattini (1659)

Samuel Morland (1669)

Claude Perrault (about 1670)

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1672)—the Stepped Reckoner

René Grillet de Roven (1678)

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.
Blaise Pascal