Early Interaction

Pascaline

Blaise Pascal develops a mechanism to calculate with 8 figures and carrying of 10's, 100's and 1000's. It was more likely to be found in the living rooms of their owners as a conversation piece rather than in the office. He develops the machine because he had to help his father with his work as a tax receiver. 

How the machine worked, when it comes to addition, is was performed easily. These are moving the horizontal slat up to cover the red row of digits. Eliminating the value from a preceding operation that may still remain by rotating with the hand the numbered drums inside the small windows of the machine to zero. Then dial the numbers in and the result will appear in the windows on the surface of the machine.

When it comes to subtraction, the user needs to move the horizontal slat down to cover the black row of digits. A new set of numbers is revealed on the nines complements. Eliminating the value from a preceding operation that may still remain, by rotation with the hand the numbered drums inside the small windows of the machine to zero. Dialling the subtrahend to produce the subtrahend's nines complement. Return the horizontal slat up to cover the nines complements row of digits. Adding the subtrahend's nines complement number with the minuend. Finally, performing mentally an end-around carry, adding the leftmost digit of the result of the last addition to the number that arises from the other digits of the number.

When it comes to multiplication, the user needs to move the horizontal slat up to cover the red row of digits. Eliminating the value from a preceding operation that may still remain by rotating with the hand the numbered drums inside the small windows of the machine to zero. Adding the multiplicand as many times as the first digit from the right of the multiplier says. Each time the next wheel in the row from the right as you move on to the next digit.When it comes to division, Pascaline accomplished it by repeating subtraction several times.

His invention of the counting machine grew out of necessity but also opened the way for more complicated counting machines by later generations of inventions. In practice it was very complicated and the weighted ratchets have a tendency to jam. Pascaline is considered nowadays, as the first calculating device that the human race has discovered.

Thocp.net. (2016). Pascaline. [online] Available at: http://www.thocp.net/hardware/pascaline.htm [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].

Macs.hw.ac.uk. (2016). Pascal's Adder - About Pascaline. [online] Available at: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~greg/calculators/pascal/About_Pascaline.htm [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].