Foreword_Origin of modern calculating machines

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Origin of Modern Calculating

Machines

A chronicle of the evolution of the

principles that form the generic

make-up of the Modern

Calculating Machine

J. A. V. TURCK

Member of The Western Society of Engineers

CHICAGO, 1921

_Published under the auspices of_

The Western Society of Engineers

J. A. V. Turck

[Illustration: Stone Age Calculating]

Foreword

There is nothing romantic in figures, and the average man takes little

interest in any subject pertaining to them. As a result of this

antipathy, there is plenty of historic evidence of man’s endeavor to

minimize the hated drudgery of calculation.

While history shows that, from prehistoric man down to the present age,

human ingenuity has turned to mechanical means to overcome the brain

fatigue of arithmetical figuring, it is within quite recent years that

he has really succeeded in devising means more rapid than the human

brain.

Of this modern product little has been written, except in disconnected

articles that have in no case offered a complete understanding as to

who were the great benefactors of mankind that gave to the world the

first concrete production of these modern principles of mechanical

calculation.

The writer, believing that there are many who would be interested to

know the true facts relative to this subject, has given to the public,

in that which follows, a chronicle of the evolution of the principles

disclosed in these modern machines, along with the proofs that form the

foundation for the story in a way that all may understand.

Although the subject has been handled in a way that makes it

unnecessary for the reader to be carried through a jangle of tiresome

mechanical construction, the writer believes that there are many

interested in the detail workings of these machines, and has for that

reason provided an interesting and simple description of the working

of each illustrated machine, which may be read by those who wish, or

skipped over, if the reader desires, without the danger of losing

knowledge of the relation of each of these machines to the Art.

[Illustration]