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A partially disassembled Curta calculator, showing the digit slides and the stepped drum behind them Curta Type I calculator, top view Curta Type I calculator, bottom view. The Curta is a hand-held mechanical calculator designed by Curt Herzstark. [1] It is known for its extremely compact design: a small cylinder that fits in the palm of the hand.
The arithmometer (French: arithmomètre) was the first digital mechanical calculator strong and reliable enough to be used daily in an office environment. This calculator could add and subtract two numbers directly and perform long multiplications and divisions effectively by using a movable accumulator for the result.
A difference engine is an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. It was designed in the 1820s, and was created by Charles Babbage . The name difference engine is derived from the method of finite differences , a way to interpolate or tabulate functions by using a small set of polynomial co-efficients.
A heat engine is a system that transfers thermal energy to do mechanical or electrical work. [1] [2] While originally conceived in the context of mechanical energy, the concept of the heat engine has been applied to various other kinds of energy, particularly electrical, since at least the late 19th century.
The pascaline (also known as the arithmetic machine or Pascal's calculator) is a mechanical calculator invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642. Pascal was led to develop a calculator by the laborious arithmetical calculations required by his father's work as the supervisor of taxes in Rouen , France. [ 2 ]
The first one was an automatic mechanical calculator, his difference engine, which could automatically compute and print mathematical tables. In 1855, Georg Scheutz became the first of a handful of designers to succeed at building a smaller and simpler model of his difference engine. [10]
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Designed by Otto Steiger, a Swiss engineer, the moving carriage of the Millionaire has a 20 decimal digit accumulator that shows the product after multiplication and into which dividend is entered prior to division. The 10-digit multiplicand or divisor is entered on the sliders (or keyboard, on later models) above the carriage, while successive ...