Calculating Machine

A calculating machine is a machine designed to come up with calculations i.e. computations. The first tool of calculation, the abacus was widely used for calculations. The abacus was primarily used in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. There are two basic forms for the abacus: a specially marked flat surface used with counters (counting table), or a frame with beads strung on wires (bead frame). Their earliest form was that of a simple stone slab with incised parallel lines. The lines served to mark the place values.  There are 3 main forms of abacus in use today; the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Russian. All are composed of a rectangular frame with beads on vertical wires. The number of wires and beads vary, and there may or may not be a horizontal divider in the frame. But advanced calculating machines did not appear until the early 1600s and by 17th century a wide variety of calculating machines were invented.

History of the Invention

William Seward Burroughs invented the first workable calculating machine. He was born in rural New York in 1855. There had been a number of earlier prototypes, but in inexperienced users' hands, those that existed would sometimes give incorrect, and at times outrageous, answers. Working in a bank inspired the young inventor with a vision of a mechanical device that would relieve accountants and bookkeepers of the monotony of their tasks and ensure that a smaller percentage of their time was spent correcting errors. Burroughs began work on his mechanical accounting device shortly after he moved to St. Louis. A sympathetic shop owner, Joseph Boyer, encouraged his work by giving him bench space at the Boyer Machine Shop and provided him with a young assistant, Alfred Doughty, later president of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. It was here in 1885, that he developed the calculating machine. He was granted a patent for the device in 1888.

Development in the Invention of Calculating Machine

In 1886 Burroughs and several St. Louis businessmen formed the American Arithmometer Co. to market the machine. The first machine, however, required a special knack in pulling the handle to execute the calculation correctly. More often than not novice users would get wildly differing sums depending on the vigour they employed in using the invention. In 1893 Burroughs received a patent for an improved calculating machine, which incorporated an oil-filled 'dashpot,' a hydraulic governor. This device enabled the machine to operate properly regardless of the manner with which the handle might be pulled.

In 1873, the Odhner Arithmometer was invented in Russia by W. T. Odhner, a Swede immigrant. It was a very successful mechanical calculator and its industrial production officially started in 1890 in Odhner's Saint Petersburg workshop. It was known as 'The Next Generation' of calculating machine. His machine incorporated a 'pin wheel' mechanism. This design proved reliable, easy to use and reduced the size of previous models. This mechanism was highly successful and soon it took over the place of the 'Arithmometer'. There were dozens of companies which incorporated the Odhner mechanism.

In 1905, Robert A. Pelham (1859-1943), an African-American employed by the Census Bureau, devised the first tabulating machine used in the Census of Manufacturers and in 1913 also developed a similar tallying machine used by the Population Division.

Role of the Invention of Calculating Machine in the improvement of human life

• It saved time and gave accurate calculations.

• Burroughs’ adding machine continually developed into more complex machines like electronic billing machines, electromechanical calculators and finally the electronic computer.