Inventor: Blaise Pascal

In 1642 Blaise Pascal invented a rudimentary digital calculator. Known as the Pascaline, it had eight dials with ten digits on each. When one of the disks was rotated ten notches, the next disks would rotate one to conserve the value. This allowed people who lacked in arithmetic skills to perform large sums and subtractions.

This invention led to the development of other adding machines that used buttons instead of spinning disks to display the total. Eventually, calculators became electronic and capable of performing huge operations in milliseconds. Today, calculating machines are integrated to almost every electronic device and affect our everyday life. They are used in many different areas, such as meteorology, chemistry, and statistics.

*Picture from Encarta Encyclopedia

Sources:

• This website has a useful timeline of inventions and many articles about the various inventions, their evolution, and their inventors.