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Pascaline (Pascal's Calculator)

Type Object Region France Time 1642–1670

The Pascaline was a gear-driven mechanical adder designed by Blaise Pascal in 1642, using rotating number drums and a carry mechanism for decimal ari…

Timeline

  1. 1642–1645Rouen · RouenTo help his father handle tax accounts, the nineteen-year-old Pascal designed a mechanical adder of brass gears, number drums, and one-way carry ratchets, completing the first working prototypes.
  2. 1645–1652Paris · ParisPascal commissioned craftsmen in Paris to produce about fifty Pascalines and obtained a royal patent from Louis XIV; the machines were housed in brass and ebony cases and could perform addition and subtraction with borrowing.
  3. 1661–1670Europe · EuropeBy the 1660s surviving Pascalines were displayed as scientific curiosities in French, German, and other courts, inspiring scholars such as Leibniz to further explore mechanical calculation and marking the shift from pure mental arithmetic to mechanized computation.

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