Who created the world's first calculator. Happy Birthday, world's first calculator! 21st century: further development

Today, the widespread use of calculators greatly facilitates human work in a variety of areas. However, it is almost impossible to imagine life without such assistants - after all, counting devices accompanied people everywhere in various historical periods, although the mechanism of their work was arranged differently.

Already three thousand years ago, the first abacus appeared in Ancient Babylon - an ancient analogue of an abacus, in which round pebbles moved along special guides in the form of recesses, and each of the guides represented a display of a number of units, tens, hundreds. Abacus was also known in Ancient India, and in the 10th century AD it also appeared in Western Europe. However, here, instead of pebbles, it was customary to use special tokens on which numbers were applied.

In Rus', the first analogue of the abacus was the abacus - they were first built at the end of the 15th century and since then their design has remained virtually unchanged, and to this day they are still used in various areas of trade.

The abacus and abacus are relatively simple devices for performing mathematical operations. And yet, since ancient times, people have sought to simplify and speed up calculations as much as possible, and therefore mathematicians invented more and more new algorithms, as well as original devices.

For example, a mechanism found on an ancient shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera dates back to approximately 100-150 BC. BC, however, this device is already amazing with its technical capabilities. Bronze gears on a wooden case, framed by a beautiful dial with arrows, represent the ancient achievement of scientists who, using the Antikyrean mechanism and similar devices, calculated the movement of celestial bodies - after all, this device performed various mathematical operations, in particular, addition, subtraction, division.

The next technical achievement in the field of mechanization of calculations dates back to 1643 and is associated with the name of the scientist Blaise Pascal. The innovation was the adding arithmetic machine, which seemed like a perfect achievement, but thirty years later Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz introduced an even more complex invention - the first mechanized calculator. It is noteworthy that it was during these years (the beginning of modern times) that the struggle between the “Abbacists” and the “algorithmists” subsided somewhat, and the calculator represented the expected compromise between the two conflicting parties.

The most active surge in the development of calculators occurs in the 19th-20th centuries. In the 1890s. in Russia, an adding machine of its own production is actively used; already in the 50s of the next century, mass production of models with an electric drive was being established - “Bistritsa”, “VMM”, etc. Pocket calculators have been available to our fellow citizens since 1974, and the first such model was Elektronika B3-04. At the same time, the first programmable calculators appeared in the USSR, the peak of development of which was the “Electronics MK-85” model, working in the Basic programming language.

Abroad, the development of calculating machines is no less intense. The first mass-produced calculator, ANITA MK VIII, was produced in England in 1961 and is a device powered by gas-discharge lamps. This device was quite bulky by modern standards; it was equipped with a keyboard for entering numbers, as well as an additional 10-key console for setting the multiplier. In 1965, Wang calculators first learned to count logarithms, and four years later the first desktop programmable calculator appeared in the United States. And in the 1970s, the world of calculators became more advanced and diverse - new desktop and pocket machines appeared, as well as professional engineering calculators, allowing for complex calculations.

Today, improved models of calculators are high-tech developments, the creation of which used the enormous experience of engineering enterprises around the world. And, despite the absolute priority of computers, calculators and other calculating devices still accompany people in various fields of activity!

Leibniz calculator

History of creation

The idea of ​​​​creating a machine that performs calculations came from the outstanding German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz after his acquaintance with the Dutch mathematician and astronomer Christiaan Huygens. The huge number of calculations that the astronomer had to do led Leibniz to the idea of ​​​​creating a mechanical device that could facilitate such calculations (“Since it is unworthy of such wonderful people, like slaves, to waste time on computational work that could be entrusted to anyone at any time.” using the machine").

The mechanical calculator was created by Leibniz in the year. The addition of numbers was carried out using wheels connected to each other, just like on the computing machine of another outstanding scientist-inventor Blaise Pascal - “Pascaline”. A moving part added to the design (a prototype of the moving carriage of future desktop calculators) and a special handle that made it possible to rotate a stepped wheel (cylinders in subsequent versions of the machine) made it possible to speed up repeated addition operations, with the help of which division and multiplication of numbers were performed. The required number of repeated additions was performed automatically.

The machine was demonstrated by Leibniz at the French Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London. One copy of the calculator came to Peter the Great, who presented it to the Chinese emperor, wanting to surprise the latter with European technical achievements.

Two prototypes were built, to this day only one has survived in the National Library of Lower Saxony (German). Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek ) in Hannover, Germany. Several later copies are in museums in Germany, such as one in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Description

Available operations

The Leibniz machine was already able to carry out the operations of multiplication, division, addition and subtraction in the decimal number system.

Heritage

Despite the shortcomings of Leibniz's calculator, it gave calculator inventors new possibilities. Drive invented by Leibniz - walking cylinder or Leibniz wheel- used in many computing machines for 300 years, until the 1970s.

See also

Literature

• Meet the computer = Understanding computers: Computer basics: Input/Output; Per. from English K.G.Bataeva; Ed. and from before V.M. Kurochkina - Moscow: Mir, 1989. - 240 pp., ill. ISBN 5-03-001147-1 (Russian).

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Everyone had to use a calculator. It has already become an ordinary object that does not cause surprise. But what is the history of its development? Who invented the calculator first? What did the medieval device look and function like?

Ancient computing tools

With the beginning of trade and exchange, people began to feel the need to count. For this purpose, they used fingers and toes, grains, and stones. Around 500 BC. e. the first scores appeared. Abaci looked like a flat board on which small objects were laid out in grooves. This type of calculus became widespread in Greece and Rome.

The Chinese used 5 as the basis for counting, not 10. Suan-pan is a rectangular frame for calculations on which threads are stretched vertically. The design was conventionally divided into 2 parts - the lower “Earth” and the upper “Sky”. The bottom balls represented ones, and the top ones represented tens.

The Slavs followed in the footsteps of their eastern neighbors, only changing the device a little. The plank counting device appeared in the 15th century. The difference from the Chinese suan-pan is that the ropes were located horizontally, and the number system was decimal.

The first mechanical device

A German mathematician and astronomer, in 1623, was able to realize his dream and became the author of a device based on a clock mechanism. Counting clocks could perform simple mathematical operations. But since the device was complex and large, it was not widely used. Johannes Keppler became the first user of the mechanism, although he believed that calculations were easier to perform in the head. From this moment the history of the calculator begins, and changes in the design and functions of the device will gradually lead it to its modern form.

The French physicist and philosopher Pascal, 20 years later, proposed a device that could count using gears. To add or subtract, you had to turn the wheel the required number of times.

In 1673, the device improved by the German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz became the first calculator - a name later cemented in history. With its help, it became possible to perform multiplication and division. However, the cost of the mechanism was high, so it was impossible to make the device available for use.

Serial production

It has been known for a long time who invented the calculator - Leibniz’s mechanism was even acquired by Peter I. His ideas were used by Wagner and Levin. After the death of the inventor, Burckhardt built a similar device, and Müller and Knutzen carried out further improvements.

The device was used for commercial purposes by the Frenchman Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar. The entrepreneur organized serial production in 1820; his machine was almost no different from the first calculator. There was debate about which of these two scientists invented it, the Frenchman was even accused of appropriating someone else’s achievement, but the design of the calculating machine in Colmar was still different.

In Tsarist Russia, the first adding machine was the result of the work of the scientist Chernyshov. He created the device in the 50s of the 19th century, but the name was patented in 1873 by Frank Baldwin. The operating principle of a mechanical adding machine is based on cylinders and gears.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, mass production of calculators began in Russia. In the Soviet Union, a device called “Felix” became widespread in the 30s of the last century and was used until the end of the 70s.

Electronic calculators

The first electronic calculator was invented by the Cassio brothers. In 1957, an era of rapid development began in the computer industry. The Casio 14-A device weighed as much as 140 kg, had an electric relay and 10 buttons. The numbers were displayed and the result was displayed. By 1965, the weight had decreased to 17 kg.

The domestic electronic calculator is the merit of scientists at Leningrad University, who developed it in 1961. The EKVM-1 model entered industrial production already in 1964. Three years later, the device was improved, it could work with trigonometric functions. The engineering calculator was first invented by Hewlett Packard in 1972.

The next stage of development is microcircuits. Who invented this generation of calculators in the USSR? 27 engineers were involved in the development. They spent about 15 years until the “Electronics V3-18” engineering calculator went on sale in 1975. Square roots, powers, logarithms and a transistor microprocessor won popular recognition, but the cost of the device was 200 rubles and not everyone could afford it.

A breakthrough in Soviet technology was the VZ-34 microcalculator. At a cost of 85 rubles, it became the first domestic home computer. The software made it possible to install not only engineering, but also gaming programs.

The MK-90 became a masterpiece of the last century. The device had no analogues at that time: a graphic display, non-volatile RAM and programming in BASIC.

Development of a new industry at the peak of the television boom

We are accustomed to using electronic calculators for both personal and business purposes. In 1964, as Japan prepared for the Tokyo Olympics, Sharp again introduced a fundamentally new product - the world's first all-transistor diode electronic calculator.

Proposal from young engineers

A few years earlier, in 1960, sales of televisions and other products had skyrocketed to levels 18 times higher than in 1950—an astonishing achievement over a ten-year period. Some young engineers who have been working in the company for about four or five years, after analyzing advanced technologies, intensively began researching computer and semiconductor technologies. Management accepted their proposals and a new research laboratory was established.

Computers are like an abacus

For a number of reasons, the company abandoned its original goals of developing large computers and instead decided to develop computers that could be used by anyone, anytime, anywhere, as simple as an abacus.

Execution after familiarization with the origins

As in the situation with radio engineering, the development of computers seemed to the development team an almost insurmountable task. But already in 1964, Sharp introduced the world's first all-transistor-diode electronic desktop calculator, the CS-10A. The cost of the calculator was 535,000 yen.

A new sensation unleashes a “war of electronic calculators”

The first all-transistor diode electronic calculator was a high-quality product that could not be confused with an abacus. The speed of calculations and silent operation were sensational. Manufacturers flocked to the industry, where there were soon 33 manufacturing companies offering 210 different models of such devices. This fierce competition has led to what is known as the "electronic calculator war."

Service as the starting point of reorganization

The successful development of the all-transistor diode electronic calculator marked the beginning of Sharp's developments in the fields of semiconductors, LCD screens, information systems and communications systems. As a result, the company has become a comprehensive enterprise for the production of electronic equipment. Fierce competition stimulated the development of more inexpensive, compact, and lightweight electronic calculators and ensured intensive development of electronic technology.

In 1965, after the excitement of the Olympic Games, the Japanese economy experienced crisis and recession. The market for the "three sacred treasures" and other products that stimulate the development of the household electrical and electronic devices industry has become saturated. For the subsequent development of sales volume and the market for electronic devices, the company quickly adopted a strategy to overcome this situation.

"Strategy 70" to strengthen the sales network

Sharp's new "Strategy 70" was aimed at strengthening and expanding its existing sales network. Its goal was to strengthen the network by 1970 through sales in subsidiaries (their sales volume should have been up to 70% of total sales). Individual operations were also carried out, including the opening of new stores (Operation A) and increased transactions with large retailers (Operation B), thereby achieving the goal of Strategy 70 by 1971.

Comprehensive growth in color television needs

1966 saw an unexpectedly rapid economic recovery, dispelling the gloom in Japanese business circles. Automotive manufacturing, air conditioning, and color televisions became the "three pillars of the economy," and Sharp's revenues increased with continued growth in color television sales and the creation of the industry's first turntable microwave ovens.

The world's first electronic calculator based on integrated circuits

Research into miniaturizing calculators by replacing transistors with integrated circuits led to the world's first electronic calculator using integrated circuits (CS-31A). The weight, number of parts and cost of the new product were almost half of the characteristics of the first Sharp calculator introduced to the market.