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Blaise Pascal was the inventor of the mechanical calculator in the early 17th century. Pascal designed the machine in 1642.〔(things-that-count.net ) and in particular [http://metastudies.net/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Site.SchicardvsPascal Schickard versus Pascal - an empty debate?〕 He was spurred to it when participating in the burden of arithmetical labor involved in his father's official work as supervisor of taxes at Rouen.〔Magazine Nature, (1942)〕 First called the Arithmetic Machine, Pascal's Calculator and later Pascaline, his invention was primarily intended as an adding machine which could add and subtract two numbers directly although its description could be extended to a "mechanical calculator with which it was possible to multiply and divide by repetition." Pascal went through 50 prototypes before presenting his first machine to the public in 1645. He dedicated it to Pierre Séguier, the chancellor of France at the time.〔(fr) La Machine d’arithmétique, Blaise Pascal, Wikisource〕 He built around twenty more machines during the next decade, often improving on his original design. Nine machines have survived the centuries,〔Guy Mourlevat, p.12 (1988)〕 most of them being on display in European museums. In 1649 a ''royal privilege'', signed by Louis XIV of France,〔Anne of Austria was Queen consort of France at the time.〕 gave him the exclusivity of the design and manufacturing of calculating machines in France. Pascal designed the first mechanical calculator to still survive from the 17th century.〔See the paragraph Competing designs in this article〕 His device was particularly successful in the smooth working of the so-called "carry mechanism"—the mechanism which allows an addition of 1 to 9 on one dial to replace the 9 with a 0, and carry 1 to the next dial. His innovation made each digit independent of the state of the others allowing for multiple carries to rapidly cascade from one digit to another regardless of the capacity of the machine. Pascal was also the first person to shrink and adapt for his purpose a lantern gear, used in turret clocks and water wheels, which was capable of resisting the strength of any operator input with very little added friction.〔See the paragraph Inner mechanism in this article〕 Pascal was also influential since he sought to commercialise his machine (albeit with only limited success). Whilst other forms of calculation (using the abacus, calculi, counting boards and other means of ready reckoning) were in widespread use, Pascal's machine symbolised a step forward compatible with the increasing interest in using machines to displace tedious work. In this sense his invention was an important step in the development of mechanical calculators first in Europe and then all over the world. Development which culminated, three centuries later, in the invention of the microprocessor developed for a Busicom calculator in 1971 ; the microprocessor is now at the heart of all computers and embedded systems.〔All computers regardless of size or purpose are powered by microprocessors and yet only 2% of the microprocessors produced worldwide in the year 2000 were used as ''computer central processing units'' the other 98% were used in embedded processor designs, Jim Turley, The essential guide to semiconductors, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2003, p. 123〕 Other later developments often reflected aspects of the Pascaline, either because they were actually inspired by it or at least shaped by the same historical influences which led Pascal to develop his invention. Gottfried Leibniz invented his Leibniz wheels after 1671 after trying to add an automatic multiplication feature to the Pascaline.〔Leland Locke, p. 316 (1933)〕 In 1820, Thomas de Colmar designed his arithmometer which, whilst it is not at all clear he ever saw Leibniz's device, either re-invented or utilised Leibniz's invention of the step drum. The arithmometer was the first mechanical calculator strong enough and reliable enough to be used daily in an office environment. ==History== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pascal's calculator」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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