Pascal’s Adding machine was created to serve the purpose

of adding and subtracting up to 8 digit numbers, along with

multiplication and division; however, multiplication and division
functions were complicated and often took a very long time. The
operation of the machine would consist of turning dials that
rotated a spool of paper underneath the dial, which in turn would
turn the paper, changing the number in the window at the top of
the machine. The dials had interlocking gears, so that when the
first dial, representing one of the place values in math, was
turned all the way to 9 and then further back to zero, the
following gear would automatically rotate to the number 1. This
provided easy operations of addition and subtraction to
accountants and users, as to add they turned the dials right, and
subtraction to the left. Multiplication and division was achieved
by a series of complicated additions or subtractions, often
making such functions cumbersome. The machine was created
for and used by accountants, such as Pascal’s father. The
machine was intended to make mathematical functions easier
and more accurate. Pascal’s adding machine was created and
marketed in 1642, when the first machine was given to his father.
One of the adding machines even made its way to King Louis XIV!
However, the machine never made Pascal rich.
 Pascal’s Adding Machine affected the world in
numerous ways, and has even inspired modern day
tools. Pascal's principal of interlocking wheels
remained important to the operation of most adding
machines for the next 300 years. The machine also
got Pascal wide praise, and is attributed to his
current fame. Parts of Pascal’s design were seen in
newer manual adding calculators until the invention
of digital adding devices. The device affected history
by becoming the first adding device ever created.
The way the interlocking gears worked inside the
machine is still being used today to move many
gears at the same time in modern machinery. Modern
computers have even felt the influence from Pascal’s
historical achievement. A popular programming
language that uses math as instructions has been
named after Pascal. This shows that even modern
devices would not be the same without inspiration
from Pascal’s early device, along with the world and
its people.
 Blaise Pascal was Etienne Pascal’s only son. He
was born in Clermont, France, where his mother died when
he was three. Him and his family moved to Paris and finally
to Rouen, Upper Normandy, where Pascal invented his
adding machine to help his father, a tax collector. Blaise
encountered many difficulties with his invention. Most of
these could be blamed on the French currency system of the
time, in which an odd set of multiples were used (Ex. 20 sols
in a livre and 12 deniers in a sol.). Many technical problems
were encountered as Pascal had to develop his own gear
system for the device. He also had to account for the use of
the Livre piece of currency, which complicated the design as
he had to work with divisions of 240 rather then 100. What is
even more amazing, but also gave Pascal even more of a
challenge, is that he did not work with a collaborator.
Unfortunately, Pascal’s device was a marketing disaster.
Fifty prototype devices were created, and very few were
sold. The adding machine was discontinued in 1652, after a
very short production run. Blaise Pascal then turned himself
towards science and physics, and is famed for proving
vacuum existed. He also became very religious during his
short life. Pascal died at the age of 39 in intense pain after a
growth in his stomach spread to the brain.
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