from fingers to adding machines
Peculiarities:
It was distributed all over the world and patented in many countries;
With its appearance, mathematical mechanical engineering was born, for many decades it was the most widespread computing machine;
Only the spread of electronic calculators displaced Odner’s adding machine from general use;
Clones of this machine were produced until the second half of the 20th century, including in Russia.
Heritage
Of course, in addition to the inventions discussed in the article, there were many others. In books Yu. L. Polunova “From abacus to computer”You can familiarize yourself with the history of calculating instruments in much more detail.
Convenient, fast and accurate counting was necessary for people, regardless of era and geography. Such tools have become a natural part of the evolution of mankind and have led us to modern computers.
The chronology of inventions clearly shows the complication and innovation of many ideas. At first, people started with the elementary, but came to complex mechanisms and did not stop there – later machines with punch cards and inventions of the German scientist Konrad Zuse appeared, but this is a completely different story.
