History of Computers and Computing, Mechanical calculators, Pioneers
The pioneers
Some of the greatest people in European scientific history are involved in this affair. Admittedly, there are others, who attempted to create such devices, but nothing had survived to our time, e.g. the Dutch Jesuit-mathematician Jan Ciermans (1602-1648), who mentioned in a 1640 book, Annus Positionum Mathematicarum, that he created a mechanical calculator with iron wheels, suitable for multiplication and division, and the prominent English scientist Robert Hooke, who in March 1673, demonstrated his arithmetical engine
Wilhelm Schickard (1623)—Calculating Clock
Blaise Pascal (1642)—Pascaline
Tito Livio Burattini (1659)—Ciclografo
Claude Perrault (around 1670)— Abaque Rhabdologique
