18th century in the history of informatics

In 1700, Charles Perrault published the “Compilation of a large number of Claude Perrot’s own machines” (Claude Perrault, 09/25/1613 to 09.10.1688), which included among the inventions of Claude Perrault (brother of Charles Perrault) a gearing machine, in which gear wheels are used instead of gear racks. The car was named "Rabdologicheskaya Abak". This device is named so because the ancients called a small board abacus, on which numbers were written, and Rabdology - the science of performing arithmetic operations with the help of small sticks with numbers.

Rabdological abacus

Magazine "Submarine" №4-1998 MORE ONE INVOLVEMENT OF THE PARIS ACADEMICIAN

Claude Perrot

Gottfried Wilheim Leibniz

German philosopher, mathematician, physicist GOTFRID WILHEIM LEIBNITZ (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 07/01/1646 - 11/14/1716) wrote a treatise "Expication de l'Arithmetique Binary" on the use of binary number system in computers. His first works on binary arithmetic belong to the year 1679.

Record numbers in binary notation

Giovanni Poleni

Giovanni Poleni (Giovanni Poleni, 1683–1761). He began his scientific career as a professor of astronomy at the University of Padua. Then he moved to the department of physics. And soon he headed the department of mathematics, replacing Nicholaus Bernoulli (1695–1726) in this post. His hobbies were architecture, archeology and the construction of ingenious mechanisms. In 1709, Poleni demonstrated an arithmometer in which the progressive principle of a “gear wheel with a variable number of teeth” was used. It was used and fundamental innovation: the machine was driven by the force of a falling load, tied to the free end of the rope. This was the first attempt in the history of “arithmetic construction” to replace the manual drive with an external source of energy.

The description of the counting machine invented by him was put by Poleny in his first book, Miscellanea: de barornetris et thermometris de machina quadem arithmetica, published in 1709 in Padua.

Magazine "Submarine" №1-1999 THE MOST FAMOUS ARITHMOMETER

Arithmometer Polen

A member of the Royal Society of London, a German mathematician, physicist, astronomer Christian Ludwig Gersten (Christian Ludwig Gersten, 02/07/1701 - August 13, 1762) in 1723 invented an arithmetic machine, and two years later made it. Gersten's machine is remarkable because it first used a device for counting the particular and the number of consecutive additions required when multiplying numbers, and also provides the ability to monitor the correctness of input (installation) of the second term, which reduces the likelihood of a subjective error associated with the fatigue of the calculator.

Gersten's adding machine

Basile Bouchon of Leon first proposed a way to control a loom with perforated paper tape.

Basil Bouchon loom (1725), Museum of Arts and Crafts in Paris.

One of the books of the encyclopedia, Theatrum arithmeticogeometricum, published in 1727 and fully devoted to the computing tools, can be considered as the world's first monograph on computer technology . In it, among many computing devices and machines, Jacob Leupold described several inventions of his own.

Magazine "Submarine" No. 11-1998 RECTANGULAR OR ROUND?

Counting device by Jacob Léopold

Jacoba Rodriguez Pereira

The report of the Commission of the Paris Academy of Sciences, published in the Journal of Scientists in 1751, contains remarkable lines: "The results of Mr. Pereira’s method we have seen are quite enough to confirm once again the opinion ... that this method of teaching the deaf-and-dumb is highly practical and that the person who used it so successfully was worthy of praise and encouragement ... Speaking of the progress that Mr. Pereira’s student made in very little time knowing numbers, we have to add that Mr. Pereira used the Arithmetic machine , which sa m invented. " This arithmetic machine by Jacob Rodriguez Pereira (Jacob Rodriguez Pereira, 1715-1780) is described in the "Journal of Scientists", but unfortunately, there are no drawings in the journal. In this calculating machine some ideas borrowed from Pascal and Perrot were used, but in general it was a completely original construction. It differed from the well-known cars in that its counting wheels were located not on parallel axes, but on a single axis that ran through the entire machine. This innovation, which made the construction more compact, was subsequently widely used by other inventors, Felt and Odner.

Magazine "Submarine" No. 5-1998 NON-TRADE PROFESSION OF COUNT MACHINES

The Englishman D. Robertson created a ruler for navigation calculations, equipped with a slider. The idea of ​​such a tool was put forward by Isaac Newton around 1660.

Jacobson Counting Machine

In the second half of the 17th century (no later than 1770), a summing machine was created in the city of Nesvizh. The inscription made on this machine says that it was "invented and manufactured by a Jew Euvn Jacobson , a watchmaker and mechanic in the city of Nesvizh in Lithuania, Minsk Voivodeship". This machine is currently in the collection of scientific instruments of the Museum named after M.Lomonosov (St. Petersburg). An interesting feature of the Jacobson machine was a special device that allowed you to automatically count the number of subtractions made, in other words, to determine the quotient. The presence of this device, the ingeniously solved problem of entering numbers, the possibility of fixing intermediate results - all this makes it possible to consider the "watchmaker from Nesvizh" an outstanding designer of counting technology.

Magazine "Submarine" No. 5-1998 FIRST RUSSIAN EMPIRE

Philip Matteos Gan

Rural pastor Philip Matteos Gan (him. Philipp Matthäus Hahn, November 25, 1939–02.05.1790) from Würtelberg developed the first valid counting machine. The 11-bit calculating machine was made already in the first months of 1774, and Gan demonstrates her work to the Duke of Württemberg, and later honored to show it to Emperor Joseph II in the Ducal Library of Ludwigsburg.

The designed machine was designed for astronomical calculations, which were very laborious. Gan wrote that he had to deal with "huge fractions and do multiplication and division over very large numbers, from which even thoughts stopped."

However, the inventor did not stop there and continued to improve the calculating mechanism. As a result, a fourteen-bit machine appeared, completed in 1778. Yielding to the requests of friends, he described it in detail in the magazine "Teutschen Mercur" in 1779. Philip Matteos Gan managed to build and, most incredible, sell a small number of counting machines.

Magazine "Submarine" No. 11-1998 RECTANGULAR OR ROUND?

Arithmometer Ghana

Stanhope Arithmometer, 1777

In England in 1775, 1777 and 1780. Charles, the third earl Stanhope (Charles Stanhope, 3.08.1753-15.12.1816) invented the counting machines, which under his leadership made the famous London-based mechanic James Bullock. The last car was summing up and was a modification of Samuel Moreland's creation, the other two were arithmometers, that is, they performed all four arithmetic operations.
In the counting machine of 1775, a modified Leibniz “stepped roller” was used, the steps of which are divided in length into separate teeth and are gear racks consisting of nine teeth.

Journal "Home Computer" № 08-2002 MECHANIZATION

Magazine "Submarine" №12-1998 CITIZEN OF THE COUNT AND HIS CARS

The weekly "Computerworld" №03-2005 SIX CENTURIES OF HISTORY OF LOGICAL MACHINES

Ghana's article in Teutschen Mercur prompted the captain’s engineer and builder Johann Helfrich Müller from Darmstadt in 1783 to design his counting machine and order its production to a watchmaker in Giessen.

The 14 Muller machine was distinguished from the Ghana car by some improvements. So, Muller replaced the digital rods, moving up and down around the circumference of the machine, with rotating disks with numbers on the side surface. He also included a bell in the mechanism that gave a signal if the calculator made certain mistakes (this idea was used later in his Analytical machine by the "father of the computer" Charles Babbage).

Müller's calculating machine (top view)

Magazine "Open Systems" №42-2002 THRILLED MACHINE IN THE XIX CENTURY

Magazine "Submarine" No. 11-1998 RECTANGULAR OR ROUND?

Müller Adding Machine

For the first time, the idea of ​​transmitting text (literal) information over a distance was realized by French engineer Claude Chappe (Claude Chappe, 12/25/1763 - 12/23/1805). In 1791 he built the first semaphore apparatus, which existed until 1852. Communication was carried out in a visual way: the relative position of the arrows (corresponding to the adopted system of symbols) on the towers built on the hills was observed from other towers into the telescopes.

Chapp Optical Telegraph in Litermont (Germany)

The first reliable large-scale messaging network with a standardized coding system appeared in France in 1794 . The number of semaphore stations in France by the middle of the XIX century. reached 556. It was an optical telegraph built by Claude Chappe for the French government. The telegraph has shortened the transfer of dispatches from one day to half an hour.

Weekly "Computerworld" №11-2002 HISTORY OF NETWORKS (From pigeon mail to Gigabith Ethernet)