Image: Leibniz Stepped Reckoner

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Description: Photo of the Staffelwalze (English: 'Stepped Reckoner'), a prototype mechanical calculator invented by German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1674 and completed in 1694. About 67 cm (26 in.) long. This was the first calculator able to do all four arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Only two Stepped Reckoners were built. This one was found by workmen in 1879 in the attic of a building at the University of Gottingen, and is now in the National Library of Lower Saxony (Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek), Hannover, Germany. For more information see James Redin (2007) A Brief History of Calculators Part 1: The Age of the Polymaths. Caption: "Leibnitz calculator, made in 1694. The first two-motion machine designed to compute multiplication by repeated addition". Alterations: cropped out frame and caption, increased brightness.
Title: Leibniz Stepped Reckoner
Credit: Downloaded on 2008-1-14 from J. A. V. Turck (1921) Origin of Modern Calculating Machines, The Western Society of Engineers, Chicago, USA, p.133 on Google Books.
Author: J. A. V. Turck
Permission: Public domain - published in USA before 1923
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No

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Arithmetic

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