“At the age of 17, wanting to help my father in cumbersome computational operations related to the collection of taxes in the Rouen generalship, of which my father was quartermaster, Pascal thought of building a calculating machine. Facilitating counting by automating it was not only his personal task, but one of the urgent scientific problems of the 17th century. […] This path was thorny, requiring from Pascal not only great creative efforts, but also great volitional and physical stress, as well as significant material costs, which, by the way, his understanding father did not skimp on. […]

Pascal gave 5 years of his fragile and short life to the creation of the calculating machine. He put into it all his knowledge of mathematics, mechanics, physics, the talent of an inventor, the natural skill of a master. As conceived by Blaise, the calculating machine-adder was supposed to facilitate complex calculations "without a pen and a token" anyone a person who is not familiar with mathematics. In theoretical terms, the principle of its operation is quite simple: automatic transfer of tens using the rotational movement of gears, replacing tens with zero in one digit and automatically adding one in the next. But for the low technology of that time, the implementation of this simple idea was fraught with incredible difficulties through which Pascal had to go.

Pascal presented one of the first finished machines with a grateful dedication to Chancellor Seguier, who at a difficult moment supported the faltering hopes of the young inventor.

In 1649, the chancellor obtained from the king "Privileges for the arithmetic machine" for Pascal, according to which the author was assigned the right to priority, its manufacture and sale. For some time, Pascal was engaged in the production of calculating machines and sold a number of them; Roberval, a friend of both Pascals, was an intermediary in the sale of cars. But the handicraft technology of that time made the production of the machine a very complex and expensive enterprise, which could not last long on the personal funds and heroic efforts of the inventor. Moreover, hard work for 5 years undermined the already fragile health of Pascal. He began to be tormented by debilitating headaches that made themselves felt throughout his subsequent life.

Streltsova G.Ya., Pascal and European culture, M., "Republic", 1994, p. 34-35.

Historians believe that Blaise Pascal had before 50 counting machine options.

Until a certain point in its development, when counting objects, humanity was content with a natural "calculator" - ten fingers given from birth. When there were not enough of them, various primitive instruments had to be invented: counting pebbles, sticks, abacus, Chinese suan-pan, Japanese soroban, Russian abacus.

The device of these tools is primitive, but handling them requires a fair amount of skill. So, for example, for a modern person, born in the era of calculators, it is extremely difficult to master multiplication and division on accounts. Such marvels of "bone" tightrope walking are now possible, perhaps, only for a microprogrammer, initiated into the secrets of the work of the Intel microprocessor.

A breakthrough in the mechanization of counting came when European mathematicians began to race to invent adding machines.

However, it was Blaise Pascal, who was the first to not only design, but also built a workable adding machine, who started, as they say, from scratch. A brilliant French scientist, one of the creators of the theory of probability, the author of several important mathematical theorems, a naturalist who discovered atmospheric pressure and determined the mass of the earth's atmosphere, and an outstanding thinker who left behind such works as “Thoughts” and “Letters to provincial."

Blaise Pascal is interesting to me as a person and as an inventor, so I want to learn more about his life and his inventions, and especially about the computer.

Pascal Blaise (19. VI. 1623 - 19. VII. 1662) - French mathematician, physicist and philosopher (see Fig. 2). He was the third child in the family. His mother died when he was only three years old. In 1632, the Pascal family left Clermont and went to Paris.

Pascal's father had a good education and decided to directly pass it on to his son. The father decided that Blaise should not study mathematics until the age of 15, and all mathematical books were removed from their home. However, Blaise's curiosity prompted him to study geometry at the age of 12. He discovered that the sum of the angles in any triangle is equal to two right angles. When his father found out, he relented and allowed Blaise to study Euclid. In December 1639, the Pascal family left Paris to live in Roen, where his father was appointed tax collector for Upper Normandy.

In 1641 (according to other sources in 1642) Pascal designed an adding machine. It was the first digital calculator that helped his father with his work. The device, called "Pascalina", looked like a mechanical calculator from the 1940s. Pascal's machine was widely used: in France it remained in use until 1799, and in England even until 1971.

Blaise Pascal made a significant contribution to the development of mathematics. In his treatise An Experience in the Theory of Conic Sections (1639, published in 1640), he expounded one of the fundamental theorems of the so-called projective geometry. Pascal's theorem. By 1654 he completed a number of works on arithmetic, number theory, algebra and probability theory. Pascal found a general criterion for the divisibility of any integer by any other integer, based on knowledge of the sum of the digits of the number, a way to calculate binomial coefficients (Arithmetic triangle); gave a way to calculate the number of combinations of n numbers by m; formulated a number of basic provisions of the elementary theory of probability.

Pascal's works, containing an integral method set forth in geometric form for solving a number of problems on calculating the areas of figures, volumes and surface areas of bodies, as well as other problems related to the cycloid, were a significant step in the development of infinitesimal analysis.

In physics, Pascal studied barometric pressure and hydrostatics. His philosophical views fluctuated between rationalism and skepticism. He was also engaged in literary activities - his Letters to a Provincial had a significant impact on the development of French fiction and theater in the 17th-18th centuries. He was one of those students who was disliked by his classmates. It is difficult to love someone whose average score was so high that everyone seemed stupid in comparison.

Pascal stood out for his abilities in everything he devoted himself to: physics, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, mathematics, statistics, invention, logic, polemics, philosophy and prose. We're talking about "Pascal" pressure, the Pascal Principle, and even the computer language is called Pascal. Literary scholars call Pascal the Father of French Prose, and theologians discuss Pascal's Wager, while evangelicals use it to testify to sinners about the gospel. He knew what pain was, he knew what struggle was, and he knew Jesus Christ in such a deep and sensual way that only a few know.

He made all his discoveries before he was forty years old. Pascal's reputation as a mathematician grew, and at the height of his fame, he corresponded with other eminent scientists and philosophers, among whom were: Fermat, Descartes, Christopher Wren, Leibniz, Huygens, and others. He continued to work on conic sections, projective geometry, probability, binomial coefficients, cycloids, and many other mysteries of the time. Sometimes he even argued with his famous colleagues about difficult problems, which he himself, of course, could solve.

In physics, Pascal excelled both in theory and experiment. At the age of 30, he completed a Treatise on the Equilibrium of Fluids, the first systematic theory of hydrostatics. In it, he formulated his famous law of pressure, which states that pressure is the same in all directions over the entire surface of a given depth. Today, this principle is fundamental in many areas and is applied in many objects, such as: submarines, breathing apparatus for diving under water, and many breathing devices. Applying this principle, Pascal invented the syringe and the hydraulic press.

Blaise Pascal's penetrating mind helped him to explain the rising liquid in a barometer not as "a property of a liquid that cannot stand a vacuum", but as the pressure of the air outside on the liquid in the tank. He opposed Descartes (who did not believe that a vacuum existed) and other followers of Aristotle at the time. Noticing that atmospheric pressure decreases with height, he concluded that the vacuum is higher than the atmosphere. James Keifer writes: “The presentation of such results is a kind of mockery of the opponents of the Jesuits. He thereby pushed back their methods, and accused them of relying on the authority of Aristotle in physics, and at the same time ignoring the authority of Scripture and the fathers, in religion." His wit, irony, insight, knowledge, and logic, backed up by mathematics, made his work vibrant and filled with inspiration and power. Keifer writes: "He taught his compatriots how to write in such a way that people read the written text with pleasure." His work is indeed a pleasure to read! His most famous work was not even named and was not finished.

Supposedly, at the age of 30, he began to work on "Apologetics [defence] of the Christian Religion", but, unfortunately, after his death, only a pile of disorderly papers was found, which were published under the title Pensees (Thoughts). Nevertheless, Pascal has written enough material that makes believers and non-believers alike think about human nature, sin, suffering, unbelief, philosophy, false religion, Jesus Christ, Scripture, heaven and hell, and much more. The wager is not just a blind hope that I will be on the right side after I die; it is a conscious choice that will put my life in order in the future and give me peace, joy and purpose in the present. Pascal died at the age of 39 from stomach cancer.

The mathematician Blaise Pascal began building the Pascaline adding machine in 1642 at the age of 19, overseeing the work of his father, who was a tax collector and often had to perform long and tedious calculations.

The first versions of the Pascalina had five gears, later their number increased to six or even eight, which made it possible to work with large numbers, up to 9999999. The answer appeared in the upper part of the metal case. The rotation of the wheels was possible only in one direction, excluding the possibility of directly operating with negative numbers. However, the Pascal machine allowed performing not only addition, but also other operations, but at the same time it required the use of a rather inconvenient procedure for repeated additions.

The subtraction was carried out with the help of additions up to nine, which, to help the counter, appeared in the window located above the original value set. The first sample constantly broke, and two years later Pascal made a more perfect model.

It was a purely financial machine: it had six decimal places and two additional ones: one divided into 20 parts, the other into 12, which corresponded to the ratio of the then monetary units (1 sous = 1/20 livre, 1 denier = 1/12 sous).

Each category corresponded to a wheel with a specific number of teeth. It was Pascal who owns the first patent for the "Pascal wheel", issued to him in 1649 by the French king. As a sign of respect for his merits in the field of "computational science", one of the modern programming languages is named Pascal.

Despite the advantages of automatic calculations, the use of a decimal machine for financial calculations within the framework of the monetary system in force at that time in France was difficult. Calculations were made in livres (pounds), sous (solids) and deniers (denarii). There were 20 sous in the livre, 12 deniers in the sous. It is clear that the use of the decimal system complicated the already difficult process of calculations.

Nevertheless, in about 10 years, Pascal built about 50 of a wide variety of materials: copper, various types of wood, ivory.

The scientist presented one of them to Chancellor Seguier (Pier Seguier, 1588-1672), sold some models, demonstrated some during lectures on the latest achievements of mathematical science. 8 copies have survived to this day. Despite the general delight it caused, the car did not bring wealth to its creator. The complexity and high cost of the machine, combined with little computing power, served as an obstacle to its wide distribution. Nevertheless, the principle of connected wheels laid down in the basis of Pascalina became the basis for most of the created computing devices for almost three centuries.

Pascal's machine became the second really working computing device after Wilhelm Schickard's Counting Clock (German: Wilhelm Schickard), created in 1623.

30 years after Pascalina, in 1673, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's "arithmetic device" appeared - a twelve-digit decimal device for performing arithmetic operations, including multiplication and division, for which, in addition to gears, a stepped roller was used. "My machine makes it possible to perform multiplication and division on huge numbers instantly," Leibniz proudly wrote to his friend.

More than a hundred years passed, and only at the end of the 18th century in France the following steps were taken, which are of fundamental importance for the further development of digital computing technology - "software" control of a loom created by Joseph Jaccard using punched cards, and computing technology, with manual counting, proposed by Gaspard de Prony, who divided numerical calculations into three stages: the development of a numerical method, the compilation of a program for a sequence of arithmetic operations, and the actual calculations by arithmetic operations on numbers in accordance with the compiled program. These two innovations were used by the Englishman Charles Babbage, who made a qualitatively new step in the development of digital computer technology - the transition from manual to automatic execution of calculations according to a compiled program. He developed the project of the Analytical Engine - a mechanical universal digital computer with program control (1830-1846).

In 1799, the transition of France to the metric system also affected its monetary system, which finally became decimal. However, almost until the beginning of the 19th century, the creation and use of counting machines remained unprofitable. It wasn't until 1820 that Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar patented the first commercially successful mechanical calculator.

At the end of the 19th century, Russia decisively invaded the world market for adding machines. The author of this breakthrough was the Russified Swede Vilgodt Teofilovich Odner (1846-1905), a talented inventor and successful businessman. Before starting the production of calculating machines, Vilgodt Teofilovich designed an automated numbering device for banknotes, which was used in printing securities. He owns the authorship of a machine for stuffing cigarettes, an automatic ballot box in the State Duma, as well as turnstiles used in all shipping companies in Russia.

In 1875, Odner designed his first adding machine, the production rights of which he transferred to the machine-building plant Ludwig Nobel.

Fifteen years later, having become the owner of the workshop, Vilgodt Teofilovich is setting up the production of a new model of adding machine in St. Petersburg, which compares favorably with the calculating machines that existed at that time in compactness, reliability, ease of use and high performance.

Three years later, the workshop becomes a powerful plant, producing more than 5,000 arithmometers a year. The product with the stamp "Mechanical Plant V. T. Odner, St. Petersburg" begins to gain world popularity, he is awarded the highest awards of industrial exhibitions in Chicago, Brussels, Stockholm, Paris. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Odner adding machine (see Fig. 5) begins to dominate the world market.

After the sudden death of the "Russian Bill Gates" in 1905, Odner's business was continued by his relatives and friends. Revolution put an end to the glorious history of the company: V.T. Odner was converted into a repair plant.

However, in the mid-1920s, the production of adding machines in Russia was revived. The most popular model, called "Felix", was produced at the plant. Dzerzhinsky until the end of the 1960s. In parallel with Felix, the production of electromechanical calculating machines of the VK series was launched in the Soviet Union, in which muscular efforts were replaced by an electric drive. This type of calculator was created in the image and likeness of the German car "Mercedes". Electromechanical machines, in comparison with adding machines, had a significantly higher productivity. However, the roar they created was like machine gun fire. If, however, a dozen or two Mercedes were working in the operating room, then in terms of noise it resembled a fierce battle.

In the 1970s, when electronic calculators began to appear - first tube, then transistor - all the mechanical splendor described above began to rapidly move to museums, where it remains to this day.

pascal calculator

Conclusion

In my work, I achieved the goals that I set for myself before. I learned about the life of the great scientist Blaise Pascal. He made a significant contribution to the development of many sciences. From my work it is clear that Blaise Pascal was a fairly educated person, otherwise I think that he would not have made so many discoveries in such fields of knowledge as: physics, hydrostatics, etc.

Believe me, there are quite a few of them. He is the first creator of computer technology, which was widely used. The principle of connected wheels laid at its foundation became the basis for most of the created computing devices for almost three centuries. In honor of Blaise Pascal, a very famous programming language is even named, which is very popular in the field of professional programming. And from this it follows that Blaise Pascal was in itself a brilliant man who made a great contribution to the development of science.

List of information resources

1. www. calc. en
2. http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/museum/Early_r.html
3. http://www.wikiznanie.ru
4. http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/telegraph/technics/189/

The Frenchman Blaise Pascal was the son of a tax collector. Watching the endless tedious calculations of his father, he decided to create a computing device. At the age of 19, Blaise began work on building an adding machine. Twenty years later, Pascal died, but mankind remembered him as an outstanding mathematician, philosopher, writer and physicist. No wonder one of the most common programming languages is named after Pascal.

Pascal's summing device was a box with many gears. In just one decade, the scientist managed to build more than fifty different versions of the machine. While working on the “pascaline”, the summed numbers were entered by a certain rotation of the typesetting wheels. Divisions from zero to nine were applied to each, which corresponded to the 1st decimal place of the number. The excess over the nine wheel “carried”, while making a full circle and moving the left “older” wheel one forward.

Despite universal recognition, the device did not make the scientist rich. However, the very principle of linked wheels formed the basis of most computing machines over the next three centuries. For his invention, Pascal received a Royal Patent, according to which he retained copyright for the production and sale of machines. However, the gifted inventor did not stop there.

In 1648, Pascal completed "experiments concerning the void." He proved the absence of "fear of emptiness" in nature. The scientist analyzed the equilibrium of liquids under the influence of atmospheric pressure. The results of the discoveries formed the basis for the invention of the hydraulic press, which was far ahead of the technology of that time.

But at one fine moment, the scientific path got sick of the famous scientist. The temple of science turned out to be cramped, and Pascal wanted to enjoy the “charms” of life. Light accepted him immediately, and for several years the inventor plunged into the atmosphere of aristocratic salons. All these years, Pascal's younger sister, a nun from Port Royal, prayed tirelessly for the salvation of her brother's lost soul.

One November evening in 1654, Pascal had a mystical insight. When he came to, he immediately wrote down the revelation on a piece of parchment and sewed it into the lining of his dress. This relic was with the scientist until the very last day.

On the day of Pascal's death, his friends discovered the parchment. The event became a turning point in the life of the inventor, who left scientific practice and experiments. From now on, his writing talent was directed to the defense of Christianity. The scientist publishes several artistic essays under the title "Letters to a Provincial".

Pascal devoted the last year of his life to pilgrimage to the churches of Paris. He was haunted by terrible headaches, and doctors forbade mental stress. However, the patient managed to write down the thoughts that came to his mind on any material that turned up. On August 19, 1662, a painful long illness took over, and Blaise Pascal died.

After his death, friends discovered many bundles of notes tied with twine. Later they were deciphered, and then published as a separate book. It is known to the modern reader under the name "Thoughts".

A programming language is named after Pascal. His father is Niklaus Wirth. Work on the Pascal language was carried out during 1968-1969. The year of birth of the Pascal language is considered to be 1970. The computer community has found in it an effective tool for structured programming and teaching correct programming.

The Frenchman Blaise Pascal began building the Pascaline adding machine in 1642 at the age of 19, overseeing the work of his father, who was a tax collector and often performed long and tedious calculations.

Pascal's machine was a mechanical device in the form of a box with numerous gears connected to each other. The numbers to be added were entered into the machine by means of the appropriate rotation of the typesetting wheels. On each of these wheels, corresponding to one decimal place of the number, divisions from 0 to 9 were applied. When entering a number, the wheels scrolled to the corresponding digit. Having made a complete revolution, the excess over the number 9 was transferred to the next digit, shifting the neighboring wheel by 1 position. The first versions of the Pascalina had five gears, later their number increased to six or even eight, which made it possible to work with large numbers, up to 9999999. The answer appeared in the upper part of the metal case. The rotation of the wheels was possible only in one direction, excluding the possibility of directly operating with negative numbers. Nevertheless, the Pascal machine allowed performing not only addition, but also other operations, but at the same time it required the use of a rather inconvenient procedure for repeated additions. Subtraction was performed using additions up to nine, which, to help the counter, appeared in a window placed above the original value set.

Despite the advantages of automatic calculations, the use of a decimal machine for financial calculations within the framework of the monetary system in force at that time in France was difficult. Calculations were carried out in livres, suidene In livre, there were 20 sous, in su - 12 deniers. It is clear that the use of the decimal system complicated the already difficult process of calculations.

However, in about 10 years, Pascal built about 50 and even managed to sell about a dozen variants of his car. Despite the general delight it caused, the car did not bring wealth to its creator. The complexity and high cost of the machine, combined with little computing power, served as an obstacle to its wide distribution. Nevertheless, the principle of connected wheels laid down in the basis of Pascalina became the basis for most of the created computing devices for almost three centuries.

Pascal's machine became the second really working computing device after Wilhelm Schickard's Counting Clock (German. Wilhelm Schickard), created in 1623.

In 1799, the transition of France to the metric system also affected its monetary system, which finally became decimal. However, almost until the beginning of the 19th century, the creation and use of counting machines remained unprofitable. It wasn't until 1820 that Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (b. Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar) patented the first commercially successful mechanical calculator.

Leibniz calculator History of creation

The idea of creating a machine that performs calculations came from the outstanding German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz after he met the Dutch mathematician and astronomer Christian Guynian. The huge amount of calculations that an astronomer had to do led Leibniz to the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a mechanical device that could facilitate such calculations (“Since it is unworthy of such wonderful people, like slaves, to waste time on computational work that could be entrusted to anyone with using the machine).

The mechanical calculator was created by Leibniz in 1673. The addition of numbers was carried out using wheels connected to each other, just like on the computer of another outstanding scientist and inventor Blaise Pascal - Pascaline. The moving part added to the design (a prototype of the movable carriage of future desktop calculators) and a special handle that allowed turning the stepped wheel (in subsequent versions of the machine - cylinders) made it possible to speed up repetitive addition operations, with which division and multiplication of numbers were performed. The required number of repeated additions was performed automatically.

The machine was demonstrated by Leibniz at the French Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London. One copy of the calculator came to Peter the Great, who presented it to the Chinese emperor, wanting to surprise the latter with European technical achievements.

Two prototypes were built, to this day only one has been preserved in the National Library of Lower Saxony (in German. Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek) in Hannover, Germany. Several later copies are in museums in Germany, such as one in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

History of technology: Pascalina arithmetic machine

In the seventeenth century there lived a simple French youth, his name was Blaise Pascal. Blaise's father worked as a tax collector and, when he came home, he spent a lot of time on calculations. Therefore, the aforementioned young man decided to lighten his father's work. This is how the world's first calculating machine appeared, which worked according to a new, previously unknown principle. Without further ado, they called her "Pascalina".

History in brief

Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662) invented his device in 1640. It took another two years to create the device. And at the age of nineteen, the young man nevertheless pleased his parent. Like, now you have more free time.

Naturally, at that time there was no computer industry even in the wildest dreams, so each copy of Pascalina had to be made independently, in a handicraft way.

Pascal presented one of the first products to the then chancellor Séguier, the patron of sciences and a lover of all sorts of interesting things. And as a thank you, the inventor received in 1649 something like a patent for a “adder machine”, an exclusive right to manufacture and sell it.

With the sale undertook to help a friend named Roberval. History has not preserved information about him. Perhaps because not so many copies of Pascalina were sold, maybe ten or fifteen.

It is also not very clear how many variants of the arithmetic machine were made. Researchers believe that fifty. The first copies allowed to count numbers up to 9999, later eight-digit ones appeared.

In other words, it was a very long time ago, there are very few reliable evidence and documents that have survived to this day.

The essence of the apparatus

The adder machine, a box in the shape of a large brick, consisted of gears on which wheels with numbers were put on. Each gear clung to the other in such a way as to turn it and change the numbers in the windows of the box.

After each nine, as expected, a new ten began, into which something that went beyond the previous one was inserted. The principle is the same as for ordinary accounts, which can still be seen in museums. But only if in the accounts it was necessary to move the knuckles on the rods with your fingers, then in Pascal's device it was enough to set the gears in motion.

Reasons for failure

First, despite some public recognition (the Chancellor intervened), handicraft production was slow and expensive. Accordingly, the price of the finished Pascalina turned out to be rather big, and not every accountant was ready to fork out for something new, unknown.

Secondly, even those who forked out faced difficulties. The fact is that in France at that time there was no decimal monetary system. The "livre" contained twenty "sus", and the "sou" contained twelve "deniers". The situation lasted until 1799. And Pascalina worked in the decimal system.

Thirdly, the device could only add numbers. Of course, you can perform multiplication operations using multiple summation, but this is not so convenient. Yes, and it contradicts the original goal of creating the device - providing everyone with a convenient arithmetic device. Even for those who are not very friendly with mathematics.

Fourthly, Blaise Pascal was not in good health, suffered from severe headaches, could not organize a large-scale business and died young. Only 11 years after his death, the German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz picked up the baton. But more on that later.

Meaning

In this case, a cliche is very appropriate, formulated approximately as "the influence of the invention on the subsequent development of mechanical counting technology is difficult to overestimate." Or something like that. After all, the contribution of Pascal was really significant. If only because the young man came up with a simple and effective mechanical summation system based on the rotation of banal gears.

Prior to this, humanity had only Wilhelm Schickard's "counting clock", so complex and incomprehensible that no one began to puzzle over them. But the followers of Pascal had only to improve the quite obvious and clear construction, to expand its functionality.

In particular, the mechanical calculator of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, introduced in 1673, consisted of wheels catching each other and actually became the successor to Pascalina. He already knew how to subtract, multiply and divide.

Later, Leibniz "lengthened" the gear wheels, turning them into cylinders. Indeed, on the surface of the cylinder there is a place to accommodate different configurations of hooking protrusions, and one rotational movement can initiate several useful actions at once.

If you look closely at the "difference engine" of the Englishman Charles Babbage, created in 1822, then you can also see all the same gears on the rollers in it.

Well, then it was, as they say, within easy reach of adding machines. All those mechanical things on the counters of shops and bars in old movies that lasted until the creation of electronic calculators in the second half of the twentieth century were the results of an evolution that began precisely with Pascalina.

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