Schickard’s Machine, the First Working Mechanical Calculator in History

W. Schickard (1592-1635), a mathematical friend of Keplero, based on the logarithms and Nepero sticks, builds his own calculator clock in 1623.

The six vertical cylinders are multiplication tables, the gears below carry out the mechanically additives and subtracts.

The original was destroyed in a fire in 1624.

This exhibited here is one of the three perfectly functional replicas of the first mechanical calculator of history (the other two are at the University of Tubinga and in the birthplace of Keplero (Wurtemberg).