1954: IBM builds the first calculating machine to use solid-state transistors instead of vacuum tubes. IBM already had a business selling calculating machines, and it was humming along quite nicely.

Most early calculating machines carried out multiplication as a form of repeated addition. To multiply, say, by thirteen, one set the carriage at its rightmost position, turned the operating crank ...

In 1867, Frederick A. P. Barnard, a mathematician and the president of Columbia University in New York, served as a judge at the Exposition universelle, a world’s fair held in Paris. There he saw a ...

THE first calculating machine was invented in 1642 by Blaise Pascal. Had it not been for the War, the tercentenary of this event, which has had such a profound influence on applied mathematics and ...

A DISPLAY of calculating machines was arranged early this month by the Burroughs Adding Machine, Ltd.,at 136 Regent Street, London, W.I. The machines shown were of many types, ranging from the simpler ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Gil Press writes about technology, entrepreneurs and innovation. This book is a tale of two quests. The first is Charles Babbage’s ...

The decision to use electronics for our calculating machines has long been decided. However, that doesn’t mean that mechanical engineers didn’t put up a valiant, if ultimately futile, fight.

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