Adding machine

A diagram of a mechanism similar to an arithmometer was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci ^[3] . This device dates from the year 1500 and is a 13-bit summing machine on ten-toothed wheels. However, at one time the ideas of Leonardo did not receive any distribution ^[2] .

Another arithmometer unknown to contemporaries was created by Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. According to the drawings, the device was a 6-bit machine of three nodes: an addition-subtraction device, a multiplying device, and an intermediate results recording unit ^[2] . Also in the XVII century were created " Pascal " Blaise Pascal and the Leibniz arithmometer ^[3] .

In 1674, the Morland machine was created. In 1709, the Italian scientist Marquis Giovanni de Poleni presented his model of an arithmometer . In 1820, Thoma de Colmar began mass production of arithmometers, generally similar to the Leibniz arithmometer, but having a number of design differences.

In the 1850s, P.L. Chebyshev created the first automatic arithmometer - the first continuous accumulating device. ^[4] In 1876, Chebyshev made a report at the V session of the French Association for the Advancement of the Advancement of Sciences. The report was entitled "Continuous Motion Summing Machine". One of the first copies of the Chebyshev summing machine was preserved in St. Petersburg. ^[5] This is a 10-bit summing machine with a continuous transmission of tens. In a car with a disruptive (discrete) transmission, the highest-order wheel moves forward one division at a time, while the lower-level wheel moves from 9 to 0. When tens are continuously transmitted, the adjacent wheel (and with it all the others) gradually turns by one division while the low-order wheel makes one revolution. Chebyshev achieves this by using planetary gear. ^{[6] [7]}

The next stages of Chebyshev's work were the construction of a new model of the summing machine and its transfer in 1878 to the Paris Museum of Arts and Crafts, and then the creation of a multiplicative dividing prefix to the summing machine. This prefix was also transferred to a museum in Paris (1881).

Frank Stephen Baldwin in 1873 created a machine called the "arithmometer", the patent was granted on July 28, 1874 . In 1890, mass production of Odner arithmometers , the most common type of arithmometer of the 20th century, began.

In the USSR, the most popular arithmometer was the Felix manufactured in 1929-1978. The total circulation of these machines amounted to several million, more than two dozen modifications were made. Schoolchildren were taught to handle this machine ^[8] .

Currently, arithmometers can be found in museums such as the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, the German Museum in Munich or the Museum of Computing in Hanover ^[2] .

The principle of operation of arithmometers is based on mechanics available in the early industrial era - gears and cylinders ^[3] .

The numbers are entered into the arithmometer, converted and transmitted to the user (displayed in the counter windows or printed on the tape) using only mechanical devices. On the Felix arithmometer, numbers are entered by moving the levers up and down. The operation of addition requires pulling the handle located on the right and turning it one turn towards itself. The operation of subtraction - on the contrary, cranking one revolution from itself ^[8] .

At the same time, the arithmometer can only use a mechanical drive (to work on them, you must constantly turn the knob, as in Felix ) or perform some operations using an electric motor. Arithmometers are digital (and not analog , like a slide rule ) devices, so the calculation result is independent of the reading error and is accurate.

Since arithmometers were primarily intended for multiplication and division, almost all arithmometers have a device that displays the number of additions and subtractions - a revolution counter (since multiplication and division are most often implemented as sequential additions and subtractions). Arithmometers can perform addition and subtraction, but on primitive lever models (for example, the Felix arithmometer), these operations are performed slowly — faster than multiplication and division, but slower than addition and subtraction on the simplest summing machines or manually ^[9] .

When working on an arithmometer, the order of actions is always set manually - immediately before each operation, press the corresponding key or turn the corresponding lever. Programmable analogs of arithmometers practically did not exist .

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  Counting machine “Felix” (Museum of Water, St. Petersburg)

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  Arithmometer Facit CA 1-13

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  Mercedes R38SM

Models of arithmometers differed mainly in the degree of automation (from non-automatic, capable of independently performing only addition and subtraction, to fully automatic, equipped with mechanisms for automatic multiplication, division, and some others) and design (the most common were models based on the Odner wheel and Leibniz roller ) .

Non-automatic and automatic machines were produced at the same time. Automatic were much more convenient, but they cost much more. For example, according to the catalog of the Central Bureau of Technical Information for Instrument Engineering and Automation (1958), in 1956 the Felix arithmometer cost 110 rubles, and the VMM-2 computer cost 6000 .

Jules Verne, in his early, unpublished during his lifetime, science fiction futurological novel “ Paris 100 Years Later ” ^[10] , describes mechanical computing devices resembling very enlarged arithmometers, similar to the piano and representing a further improvement of the models created by Tom de Colmar . This is the only description of computer technology by Jules Verne ^[11] .

Arthur Conan Doyle in the novel “ Sign of Four ” used an arithmometer as a symbol of machine accuracy of thinking: it is with this device that Dr. Watson compares Sherlock Holmes ^[12] .

In 1920, the Russian poet Sergei Neldichen asked the rhetorical question at that time: “ They invented the arithmometer. What about a rhyme meter? " ^[13] .

The Minister of Economic Development of Russia Alexey Ulyukaev , having received the Felix arithmometer as a present for his anniversary, called it “a very good thing” ^[8] .

• History of Computer Engineering
• Calculating machine
• Summing machine
• Cash register machine
• Calculator
• Accounts

1. Organization and technique of accounting mechanization; B. Drozdov, G. Evstigneev, V. Isakov; 1952
2. Calculating machines; I. S. Evdokimov, G. P. Evstigneev, V. N. Kriushin; 1955
3. Computers, V.N. Ryazankin, G.P. Evstigneev, N.N. Tresvyatsky. Part 1.
4. Catalog of the central bureau of technical information of instrumentation and automation; 1958

• Arithmometer // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Arif-ru - Site about arithmometers (rus.)
• John Wolff's Web Museum: Descriptions of many typical arithmometers, fairly complete information. (eng.)
• www.rechnerlexikon.de - A large site dedicated to mechanical computers. (German)