How did someone invented the calculator?
Blaise Pascal invented the first known mechanical adding and subtracting machine in 1641. His idea was steadily improved until, in 1820, one Charles Xavier Thomas of Alsace marketed the first commercially successful machine which could also multiply and divide. These machines got better and better, and many commercial firms became dependent on them right up until the 1960’s. I have one from the early 1950’s which is full of gear wheels, weighs 8 kilos, and can be worked by a hand crank to add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers up to eight or ten digits. More expensive ones had pushbuttons and an electric motor. By the early 1970’s, technology could provide battery-powered transistorised logic and solid-state display panels. It was natural for electronics firms to market a cheaper pocket alternative to these heavy desktop calculators, and the first one was the HP-35 in 1972. Since then they have got smaller, cheaper, and much more powerful. But it has all been a steady progression o
