Blaise Pascal invented the first mechanical calculator to help his father collect taxes
At just 19 years old, Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical calculator with a sophisticated gear carry system to simplify his father's grueling tax accounting work.
In 1642, the French mathematician Blaise Pascal developed the Pascaline, the first mechanical calculator to be used in a professional setting. Designed to assist his father, a royal tax commissioner, the device could add and subtract using a series of interlocking wheels. The true innovation was the 'sautoir,' a gravity-based ratchet mechanism that automatically 'carried' a ten to the next column when a wheel completed a full rotation, preventing the overcounting errors common in earlier designs.
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