1.
Mechanical calculator
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A mechanical calculator, or calculating machine, was a mechanical device used to perform automatically the basic operations of arithmetic. Most mechanical calculators were comparable in size to small computers and have been rendered obsolete by the advent of the electronic calculator. Surviving notes from Wilhelm Schickard in 1623 reveal that he designed and had built the earliest of the attempts at mechanizing calculation. A study of the surviving notes shows a machine that would have jammed after a few entries on the dial. Schickard abandoned his project in 1624 and never mentioned it again until his death years later in 1635. Two decades after Schickards supposedly failed attempt, in 1642, Blaise Pascal decisively solved these problems with his invention of the mechanical calculator. Co-opted into his fathers labour as tax collector in Rouen, Pascal designed the calculator to help in the amount of tedious arithmetic required. It was called Pascals Calculator or Pascaline, for forty years the arithmometer was the only type of mechanical calculator available for sale. The comptometer, introduced in 1887, was the first machine to use a keyboard which consisted of columns of nine keys for each digit, the Dalton adding machine, manufactured from 1902, was the first to have a 10 key keyboard. Electric motors were used on some mechanical calculators from 1901, the production of mechanical calculators came to a stop in the middle of the 1970s closing an industry that had lasted for 120 years. The first one was a mechanical calculator, his difference engine. In 1855, Georg Scheutz became the first of a handful of designers to succeed at building a smaller and simpler model of his difference engine, a crucial step was the adoption of a punched card system derived from the Jacquard loom making it infinitely programmable. The desire to economize time and mental effort in arithmetical computations and this instrument was probably invented by the Semitic races and later adopted in India, whence it spread westward throughout Europe and eastward to China and Japan. After the development of the abacus, no further advances were made until John Napier devised his numbering rods, or Napiers Bones, in 1617. The 17th century marked the beginning of the history of mechanical calculators, as it saw the invention of its first machines, including Pascals calculator, Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical calculator with a sophisticated carry mechanism in 1642. After three years of effort and 50 prototypes he introduced his calculator to the public and he built twenty of these machines in the following ten years. This machine could add and subtract two numbers directly and multiply and divide by repetition and this suggests that the carry mechanism would have proved itself in practice many times over. Pascals invention of the machine, just three hundred years ago, was made while he was a youth of nineteen
2.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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Leibnizs notation has been widely used ever since it was published. It was only in the 20th century that his Law of Continuity and he became one of the most prolific inventors in the field of mechanical calculators. He also refined the number system, which is the foundation of virtually all digital computers. Leibniz, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, was one of the three great 17th-century advocates of rationalism and he wrote works on philosophy, politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology. Leibnizs contributions to this vast array of subjects were scattered in various learned journals, in tens of thousands of letters and he wrote in several languages, but primarily in Latin, French, and German. There is no complete gathering of the writings of Leibniz in English, Gottfried Leibniz was born on July 1,1646, toward the end of the Thirty Years War, in Leipzig, Saxony, to Friedrich Leibniz and Catharina Schmuck. Friedrich noted in his journal,21. Juny am Sontag 1646 Ist mein Sohn Gottfried Wilhelm, post sextam vespertinam 1/4 uff 7 uhr abents zur welt gebohren, in English, On Sunday 21 June 1646, my son Gottfried Wilhelm is born into the world a quarter after six in the evening, in Aquarius. Leibniz was baptized on July 3 of that year at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig and his father died when he was six and a half years old, and from that point on he was raised by his mother. Her teachings influenced Leibnizs philosophical thoughts in his later life, Leibnizs father had been a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Leipzig, and the boy later inherited his fathers personal library. He was given access to it from the age of seven. Access to his fathers library, largely written in Latin, also led to his proficiency in the Latin language and he also composed 300 hexameters of Latin verse, in a single morning, for a special event at school at the age of 13. In April 1661 he enrolled in his fathers former university at age 15 and he defended his Disputatio Metaphysica de Principio Individui, which addressed the principle of individuation, on June 9,1663. Leibniz earned his masters degree in Philosophy on February 7,1664, after one year of legal studies, he was awarded his bachelors degree in Law on September 28,1665. His dissertation was titled De conditionibus, in early 1666, at age 19, Leibniz wrote his first book, De Arte Combinatoria, the first part of which was also his habilitation thesis in Philosophy, which he defended in March 1666. His next goal was to earn his license and Doctorate in Law, in 1666, the University of Leipzig turned down Leibnizs doctoral application and refused to grant him a Doctorate in Law, most likely due to his relative youth. Leibniz then enrolled in the University of Altdorf and quickly submitted a thesis, the title of his thesis was Disputatio Inauguralis de Casibus Perplexis in Jure. Leibniz earned his license to practice law and his Doctorate in Law in November 1666 and he next declined the offer of an academic appointment at Altdorf, saying that my thoughts were turned in an entirely different direction
3.
Lower Saxony
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Lower Saxony is a German state situated in northwestern Germany and is second in area, with 47,624 square kilometres, and fourth in population among the sixteen Länder of Germany. In rural areas Northern Low Saxon, a dialect of Low German, and Saterland Frisian, a variety of Frisian, are still spoken, but the number of speakers is declining. Lower Saxony borders on the North Sea, the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Netherlands. Furthermore, the state of Bremen forms two enclaves within Lower Saxony, one being the city of Bremen, the other, its city of Bremerhaven. In fact, Lower Saxony borders more neighbours than any other single Bundesland, the states principal cities include the state capital Hanover, Braunschweig, Lüneburg, Osnabrück, Oldenburg, Hildesheim, Wolfenbüttel, Wolfsburg and Göttingen. The northwestern area of Lower Saxony, which lies on the coast of the North Sea, is called East Frisia, in the extreme west of Lower Saxony is the Emsland, a traditionally poor and sparsely populated area, once dominated by inaccessible swamps. The northern half of Lower Saxony, also known as the North German Plains, is almost invariably flat except for the hills around the Bremen geestland. Towards the south and southwest lie the northern parts of the German Central Uplands, the Weser Uplands, between these two lie the Lower Saxon Hills, a range of low ridges. Thus, Lower Saxony is the only Bundesland that encompasses both maritime and mountainous areas, Lower Saxonys major cities and economic centres are mainly situated in its central and southern parts, namely Hanover, Braunschweig, Osnabrück, Wolfsburg, Salzgitter, Hildesheim and Göttingen. Oldenburg, near the coastline, is another economic centre. To the north, the Elbe river separates Lower Saxony from Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the banks just south of the Elbe are known as Altes Land. Due to its local climate and fertile soil, it is the states largest area of fruit farming. Most of the territory was part of the historic Kingdom of Hanover. It was created by the merger of the State of Hanover with several states in 1946. Lower Saxony has a boundary in the north in the North Sea. The state and city of Bremen is an enclave surrounded by Lower Saxony. The Bremen/Oldenburg Metropolitan Region is a body for the enclave area. To the southeast the state border runs through the Harz, low mountains that are part of the German Central Uplands, in northeast Lower Saxony is Lüneburg Heath
4.
Hanover
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At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Electorate was enlarged to become a Kingdom with Hanover as its capital. From 1868 to 1946 Hanover was the capital of the Prussian Province of Hanover and it is now the capital of the Land of Lower Saxony. Since 2001 it has been part of the Hanover district, which is a body made up from the former district. With a population of 518,000, Hanover is a centre of Northern Germany. Hanover also hosts annual commercial trade fairs such as the Hanover Fair, every year Hanover hosts the Schützenfest Hannover, the worlds largest marksmens festival, and the Oktoberfest Hannover, the second largest such festival in Germany. In 2000, Hanover hosted the world fair Expo 2000, the Hanover fairground, due to numerous extensions, especially for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world. Hanover is of importance because of its universities and medical school, its international airport. The city is also a crossing point of railway lines and highways. Hanover is the traditional English spelling, the German spelling is becoming more popular in English, recent editions of encyclopaedias prefer the German spelling, and the local government uses the German spelling on English websites. The traditional English spelling is used in historical contexts, especially when referring to the British House of Hanover. Hanover was founded in times on the east bank of the River Leine. Its original name Honovere may mean high bank, though this is debated, Hanover was a small village of ferrymen and fishermen that became a comparatively large town in the 13th century due to its position at a natural crossroads. As overland travel was difficult, its position on the upper navigable reaches of the river helped it to grow by increasing trade. In the 14th century the churches of Hanover were built. The beginning of industrialization in Germany led to trade in iron and silver from the northern Harz Mountains, in 1636 George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, ruler of the Brunswick-Lüneburg principality of Calenberg, moved his residence to Hanover. The Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg were elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor to the rank of Prince-Elector in 1692, thus the principality was upgraded to the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, colloquially known as the Electorate of Hanover after Calenbergs capital. Its electors would later become monarchs of Great Britain, the first of these was George I Louis, who acceded to the British throne in 1714. The last British monarch who ruled in Hanover was William IV, semi-Salic law, which required succession by the male line if possible, forbade the accession of Queen Victoria in Hanover
5.
Deutsches Museum
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The museum was founded on 28 June 1903, at a meeting of the Association of German Engineers as an initiative of Oskar von Miller. Its official name is Deutsches Museum von Meisterwerken der Naturwissenschaft und Technik and it is the largest museum in Munich. The main site of the Deutsches Museum is an island in the Isar river. The island did not have any buildings before 1772 because it was regularly flooded prior to the building of the Sylvensteinspeicher, in 1772 the Isar barracks were built on the island and, after the flooding of 1899, the buildings were rebuilt with flood protection. In 1903 the city announced that they would donate the island for the newly built Deutsches Museum. The island formerly known as Kohleninsel was then renamed Museumsinsel, in addition to the main site on the Museumsinsel, the museum has two branches in and near Munich and one in Bonn. The Flugwerft Schleißheim branch is located some 18 kilometres north of Munichs city centre close to Schleißheim Palace and it is based on the premises of one of the first military airbases in Germany founded just before World War I. The Flugwerft Schleißheim displays various interesting airplanes for which there was insufficient room at the Museumsinsel site in downtown Munich, among the more prominent exhibits is a Horten flying wing glider built in the 1940s, restored from the few surviving parts. A collection of the German constructions of VTOL planes developed in the 1950s and 1960s is unique, a range of Vietnam era fighter planes as well as Russian planes taken over from East Germany after the reunification are on display. This outstation also features a dedicated to the restoration of all types of airplanes intended for static display. The latest branch of the Deutsches Museum, located at Theresienhöhe in Munich, the branch located in Bonn was opened in 1995 and focuses on German technology, science and research after 1945. In 1883 he joined AEG and founded an office in Munich. The Frankfurt electricity exhibition in 1891 and several power plants contributed to the reputation of Oskar von Miller, in the early years, the exhibition and the collection of the Deutsches Museum were strongly influenced personally by Oskar von Miller. A few months before the 1903 meeting of the Society of German Engineers, Oskar von Miller gathered a group who supported his desire to found a science. In a showing of support this group spontaneously donated 260,000 marks to the cause, in June 1903, Prince Ludwig agreed to act as patron of the museum and the city of Munich donated Coal Island as a site for the project. In addition, exhibits began to arrive from Munich, Germany, as no dedicated museum building existed, the exhibits were displayed in the National Museum. On 12 November 1906, the exhibits at the National Museum were ceremonially opened to the public. Oskar von Miller opened the new museum on his 70th birthday,2 May 1925, from the beginning, the museum displays are backed up by documents available in a public library and archives, which are open seven days a week to ensure access to the working public
6.
Munich
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Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, the Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.8 million people. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning by the monks. It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich, Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the citys official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. In 1918, during the German Revolution, the house of Wittelsbach, which governed Bavaria since 1180, was forced to abdicate in Munich. In the 1920s, Munich became home to political factions, among them the NSDAP. During World War II, Munich was heavily bombed and more than 50% of the entire city, the postwar period was characterised by American occupation until 1949 and a strong increase of population and economic power during the years of the Wirtschaftswunder after 1949. The city is home to corporations like BMW, Siemens, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE as well as many small. Munich is home to national and international authorities, major universities, major museums. Its numerous architectural attractions, international events, exhibitions and conferences. Munich is one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany and it is a top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location, despite being the municipality with the highest density of population in Germany. Munich nowadays hosts more than 530,000 people of foreign background, the year 1158 is assumed to be the foundation date, which is the earliest date the city is mentioned in a document. The document was signed in Augsburg, by that time the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had built a bridge over the river Isar next to a settlement of Benedictine monks—this was on the Old Salt Route and a toll bridge. In 1175, Munich was officially granted city status and received fortification, in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the Bishop of Freising. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, Duke Louis IV, a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the position by granting it the salt monopoly
7.
Leibniz wheel
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Invented by Leibniz in 1673, it was used for three centuries until the advent of the electronic calculator in the mid-1970s. Leibniz built a machine called the Stepped Reckoner based on design in 1694. It was made famous by Thomas de Colmar when he used it, a century and a later, in his Arithmometer. It was also used in the Curta calculator, a popular portable calculator introduced in the second part of the 20th century. By coupling a Leibniz wheel with a counting wheel free to move up and down its length, the animation on the side shows a nine-tooth Leibniz wheel coupled to a red counting wheel. It is set to mesh with three teeth at each rotation and therefore would add or subtract 3 from the counter at each rotation, the computing engine of an Arithmometer has a set of linked Leibniz wheels coupled to a crank handle. Each turn of the handle rotates all the Leibniz wheels by one full turn. The input sliders move counting wheels up and down the Leibniz wheels which are linked by a carry mechanism. – Gottfried Leibniz built his first stepped reckoner in 1694 and another one in 1706, – Philipp-Matthäus Hahn, a German pastor, built two circular machines in 1770. – J. C. Schuster, Hahns brother in law, – Lord Stanhope designed a machine using Leibniz wheels in 1777. He also designed a pinwheel calculator in 1775, – Johann-Helfrich Müller built a machine very similar to Hahns machine in 1783. – Thomas de Colmar invented his Arithmometer in 1820 but it took him 30 years of development before it was commercialized in 1851, louis Payen, Veuve L. Payen and Darras were successive owners and distributors of the Arithmometer. – Timoleon Maurel invented his Arithmaurel in 1842, the complexity of its design limited its capacity and doomed its production, but it could multiply two numbers by the simple fact of setting them on its dials. These clones, often more sophisticated than the original arithmometer, were built until the beginning of World War II, – Joseph Edmondson invented and manufactured a circular calculator in 1885. – Friden and Monroe calculators used a variant of this mechanism. Both were made in numbers, Monroe started early in the 20th century. The variant mechanism worked with digits from 1 through 4 as shown in the animation and this made it unnecessary for the sliding gear to travel longer distances for the higher-number digits. Otherwise, pressing a 5.9 key would require either a stroke or excessive force combined with a gently sloping cam surface
8.
Curta
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The Curta is a small mechanical calculator developed by Curt Herzstark. The Curtas design is a descendant of Gottfried Leibnizs Stepped Reckoner and Charles Thomas Arithmometer, accumulating values on cogs and it has an extremely compact design, a small cylinder that fits in the palm of the hand. Curtas were considered the best portable calculators available until they were displaced by electronic calculators in the 1970s, the Curta was conceived by Curt Herzstark in the 1930s in Vienna, Austria. By 1938, he had filed a key patent, covering his complemented stepped drum, the nines complement math breakthrough eliminated the significant mechanical complexity created when borrowing during subtraction. This drum would prove to be the key to the small and his work on the pocket calculator stopped in 1938 when the Nazis forced him and his company to concentrate on manufacturing measuring instruments and distance gauges for the German army. Herzstark, the son of a Catholic mother and Jewish father, was taken into custody in 1943, the head of the department, Mr. Munich said, See, Herzstark, I understand youve been working on a new thing, a small calculating machine. Do you know, I can give you a tip and we will allow you to make and draw everything. If it is worth something, then we will give it to the Führer as a present after we win the war. Then, surely, you will be made an Aryan, for me, that was the first time I thought to myself, my God, if you do this, you can extend your life. And then and there I started to draw the CURTA, the way I had imagined it, Herzstark worked hard to move his invention from his knowing how to build the device in principle to concise working drawings for a manufacturable device. The department heads celebration plan did not materialize, but Herzstarks construction plans did, between April 11,1945, when Buchenwald was liberated by U. S. Soviet forces had arrived in July, and Herzstark feared being sent to Russia, so, later that same month and he began to look for financial backers, at the same time filing continuing patents as well as several additional patents to protect his work. The Prince of Liechtenstein eventually showed interest in the manufacture of the device and this ploy now backfired, without the patent rights, they could manufacture nothing. Herzstark was able to negotiate a new agreement, and money continued to flow to him, Curtas were considered the best portable calculators available until they were displaced by electronic calculators in the 1970s. Herzstark continued to make money from his invention until that time, although, like many inventors before him, he was not among those who profited the most from his invention. The Curta, however, lives on, being a popular collectible. In 2016 a Curta was designed that could be produced on a 3D printer, the fine tolerances needed are beyond present printer technology and this means the machine has to be much bigger, about the size of a coffee mug. The Curta Type I was sold for $125 in the years of production
