Home > Calculator Time-line
Chronology of calculator developments |
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Year |
Major |
Mechanical Calculators |
Electronic Calculators |
Ancient times |
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The abacus is the main aid to calculation. |
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c1600 |
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"Napier's bones" invented by John Napier for multiplication, based on the ancient numerical scheme known as the Arabian lattice. |
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1620 |
Slide rule. |
William Gunter developed a logarithmic rule for multiplication and division using dividers, which was the forerunner of the slide rule. |
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1622 |
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William Oughtred invented the circular slide rule, and in 1633 described the rectilinear version. |
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1623 |
First mechanical calculator. |
Willhelm Schickard invented the "Calculating Clock", the first mechanical calculator. It used a version of Napier's bones for multiplication with a mechanical adding/subtracting calculator based on gears, with mutilated gears for carry. |
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1642 |
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Blaise Pascal started to develop a mechanical calculator - the Pascaline. Capable of addition, subtraction was performed by nines-complement addition, and multiplication was performed by repeated additions and subtractions. It had shortcomings and failed to sell. |
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c1673 |
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Gottfried Leibniz developed the Stepped Reckoner using stepped gear wheels. Performed the 4 functions, but worked erratically due to an error in the carry mechanism, none sold. |
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1820 |
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Charles Xavier Thomas's Arithmometer. |
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1851 |
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Victor Schilt exhibited a key-driven adding machine at the Crystal Palace Exposition in London. |
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1853 |
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The Scheutz Difference Engine completed: the world's first printing calculator. |
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1872 |
Start of period of development of commercially successful mechanical calculators. |
Frank Baldwin in the USA invents the pin-wheel calculator. |
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1874 |
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W.T. Odhner in Sweden independently develops the pin-wheel calculator, the first of the long series of Odhner calculators |
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1878 |
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The first direct multiplication machine was built by Raymond Verea. |
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1884 |
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Dorr E. Felt invents the Comptometer, the first succesfull key-driven adding and calculating
machine. In 1886 he joined with Robert Tarrant to form the Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company which went on to make thousands of Comptometers |
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1891 |
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William S. Burroughs began commercial manufacture of his printing adding calculator. |
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1893 |
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The Millionaire calculator introduced. It allowed direct multiplication by any digit - "one turn of the crank for each figure in the multiplier". |
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1902 |
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The Dalton adding-listing machine was the first of its type to use only ten keys - first 10-key add-lister. |
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1900 |
Steady development of mechanical calculators - size reduction, electric motor drive, added features (eg. automatic multiplication & division). |
Madas 20AZS |
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1948 |
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Curta |
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1961 |
The first electronic desktop calculators. They use vacuum tubes. |
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The world's first electronic desktop calculators were announced by the Bell Punch Co., Uxbridge, England - the Anita Mk VII |
1962 |
Development work on transistorised desktop calculators. |
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The Philips company shows prototype 3-function (no division) transistor desk calculator and electronic "Comptometer" type machines. These were to demonstrate what could be achieved with Philips semiconductors and were not sold commercially |
1963 |
First commercial transistorised desktop calculators. |
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First commercial all-transistor desktop calculators: Friden EC130 & EC132 Prices comparable to that of family cars. |
1965 |
Start of development of hand-held electronic calculators. |
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Texas Instruments starts development work on a hand-held calculator - the "Cal-Tech". |
1969 |
First battery powered, hand-held, electronic calculator. |
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First calculator using just LSI (Large Scale Integration) chips - Sharp QT-8D First battery powered, hand-held calculator - Sharp QT-8B Green fluorescent tube displays introduced . |
1970 |
Hand-held calculators take off. First shirt pocket sized electronic calculator. All very expensive. |
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Some of the first hand-held calculators: Sharp EL-8 First use of "calculator on a chip" introduced by Mostek of Dallas - used in Busicom Junior First use of LED (Light Emitting Diode) displays used in Busicom LE-120A. |
1971 |
First calculator to use a microprocessor. |
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First microprocessor - Intel 4004 - was designed for and used in Busicom 141-PF desk calculator |
1972 |
Rapid development of electronic calculators, and reduction in price. |
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First scientific pocket calculator introduced - Hewlet-Packard HP35 Ultra-thin Sinclair Executive Many new companies entering the calculator business and prices dropping rapidly. LCD (Liquid Crystal Device) displays appear briefly in a version giving silver-reflective numbers, including: The Sharp EL-801 |
1973 |
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First Sharp "COS" (Crystal on Substrate) reflective LCD calculators, including EL-805S |
1974 |
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Texas Instruments awarded patent for "miniature electronic calculator", based on the "CalTech" (see 1965). The Hewlett Packard HP65 |
1975 |
Mechanical calculator manufacture has practically ceased. |
Mechanical calculator sales practically zero. |
Price of basic pocket calculators now very low, many companies leave the market due to lack of profits. The Casio pocket-LC |
1976 |
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LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) displays (with black numbers) taking over from red LED (Light Emitting Diode) and green fluorescent tube displays in calculators due to their very low power consumption, large numbers, and high contrast. The first calculators equipped with solar cells (used to charge the internal batteries) include the Sharp EL-8026 "Sun Man" |
1978 |
First solar-powered and first credit card sized calculators. |
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One of the first solar-powered calculators is the Teal Photon The |
1980 |
First hand-held computer |
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The Sharp PC1211 / Tandy TRS80 PC-1 |
(Note that:
The site vectorified.com/ has a translation of this time-line into Uzbek, for the convenience of Uzbek speakers.)
For further information on the development of the pocket electronic calculator see the articles "Evolution of Today's Calculator" and "The History of Pocket Electronic Calculators" in the Collecting Calculators section of this site. There are many other articles on the development of calculators in this section.
Vintage Calculators
© Text & photographs copyright Nigel Tout 2000-2022 except where noted otherwise.