Posted
on June 19, 2014
Your
whole world is surrounded by computers. Not only are there computers
on your desk, they're also in your phone, your microwave oven, your
TV, your car, your camera, your almost-everything that has a plug or
a battery!
Today's
birthday boy (born in France on this date in 1623) is part of the
history of computing, so we can thank him heartily today. Pascal was
a mathematician who invented one of the first mechanical adding
machines, in 1642, so that he could simplify all the arithmetic he
had to do while helping his father in his career as supervisor of
taxes in Rouen, France.
Pascal
has always gotten the credit for being the inventor of the mechanical
calculators, but a few historians have wanted to give that credit to
Wilhelm Schickard instead. About twenty years before Pascal's
invention (and totally independent of the latter invention),
Schickard had written about a calculator he had created. He included
some drawings. If you try to replicate Schickard's invention from the
description and the drawings, however, you do not come up with a
calculator that works. So he either bragged about something he hadn't
actually completed or perfected, or he was sloppy with his drawings
and description. Either way, Pascal still gets the credit. Sloppy
work cannot be copied and expanded on, so it isn't a jumping-off
place; instead, it's a stopping place.
Science
and technology are all about creating jumping-off places!
 |
| Pascal's adding machine. |
Pascal
created 50 prototypes of his adding machine, which he called
Pascalines, until he was finally satisfied that he could announce his
invention to the public. He built 21 of the machines, occasionally
making improvements on the design. Nine of these machines have
survived until this day and are on display in European museums.
By
the way, in 1972, computer scientist Nicklaus Wirth invented a new
computer language, and he named it Pascal to honor our birthday boy.
I should also note that Pascal made other significant contributions
to mathematics and science and even philosophy and theology!
Pascal
is considered a child prodigy and a polymath. In other words, he was
very, very smart!
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