Chronology of calculator developments. | Year | Major
Development | Mechanical Calculators | Electronic Calculators | Ancient times | | The abacus is the main aid to calculation. | | c1600 | | "Napier's bones" invented by John Napier for multiplication, based on the ancient numerical scheme known as the Arabian lattice. | | 1620 | Slide rule. | William Gunter developed a logarithmic rule for multiplication and division using dividers, which was the forerunner of the slide rule. | | 1622 | | William Oughtred invented the circular slide rule, and in 1633 described the rectilinear version. | | 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. | | 1642 | | 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. | | c1673 | | 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. | | 1820 | | Charles Xavier Thomas's Arithmometer. | | 1851 | | Victor Schilt exhibited a key-driven adding machine at the Crystal Palace Exposition in London. | | 1853 | | The Scheutz Difference Engine completed: the world's first printing calculator. | | 1872 | Start of period of development of commercially successful mechanical calculators. | Frank Baldwin in the USA invents the pin-wheel calculator. | | 1874 | | W.T. Odhner in Sweden independently develops the pin-wheel calculator, the first of the long series of Odhner calculators . Since then, many calculating machines have used the same principle. | | 1878 | | The first direct multiplication machine was built by Raymond Verea. | | 1884 | | Dorr E. Felt invents theComptometer, 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 . | | 1891 | | William S. Burroughs began commercial manufacture of his printing adding calculator. | | 1893 | | Millionaire calculator introduced. It allowed direct multiplication by any digit - "one turn of the crank for each figure in the multiplier". | | 1902 | | The Dalton adding-listing machine was the first of its type to use only ten keys - first 10-key add-lister. | | 1900
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1975 | Steady development of mechanical calculators - size reduction, electric motor drive, added features (eg. automatic multiplication & division). | Madas 20BZS , a typical electrically driven, stepped-gear calculator with automatic multiplication and division. | | 1948 | | Curta miniature hand-held mechanical calculator introduced. One of the few major innovations in mechanical calculators in the mid 20th century. | | 1961 | The first electronic desktop calculators. They use vacuum tubes. | | The world's first electronic desktop calculators were announced by the Bell Punch Co., Uxbridge, England - theAnita Mk VII for the continental European market and theAnita Mk 8 for other markets. These models used cold-cathode vacuum tubes and numerical display ("Nixie" type) tubes. | 1962 | Development work on transistorised desktop calculators. | | 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
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1964 | First commercial transistorised desktop calculators. | | First commercial all-transistor desktop calculators: Friden EC130 & EC132 ,Mathatron, IME 84 ,Sharp CS10A .Prices comparable to that of family cars. | 1965 | Start of development of hand-held electronic calculators. | | Texas Instruments starts development work on a hand-held calculator - the"Cal-Tech". | 1969 | First battery powered, hand-held, electronic calculator. | | First calculator using just LSI (Large Scale Integration) chips - Sharp QT-8D , with ICs by Rockwell. Size & weight much reduced, calculator now portable.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. | | Some of the first hand-held calculators:
Canon Pocketronic ,Sanyo ICC-0081 ,Sharp EL-8 , but very expensive.First use of "calculator on a chip" introduced by Mostek of Dallas - used in Busicom Junior (desk calculator) and allows the production of the first shirt pocket sized electronic calculator, the Busicom LE-120A .First use of LED (Light Emitting Diode) displays used in Busicom LE-120A. | 1971 | First calculator to use a microprocessor. | | 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. | | First scientific pocket calculator introduced - Hewlet-Packard HP35 .Ultra-thin Sinclair Executive launched.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:
Lloyds Accumatic 100 ,Rapidman 1208LC .The Sharp EL-801 sees the first use of C-MOS (Complementary Metal-oxide Semiconductor) integrated circuits in a calculator. | 1973 | | | First Sharp "COS" (Crystal on Substrate) reflective LCD calculators, including EL-805S . | 1974 | | | Texas Instruments awarded patent for "miniature electronic calculator", based on the "CalTech" (see 1965).The Hewlett Packard HP65 is the first hand-held programmable calculator. | 1975 | Mechanical calculator manufacture has practically ceased.
Mass production makes electronic calculators very cheap. | Mechanical calculator sales practically zero. | Price of basic pocket calculators now very low, many companies leave the market due to lack of profits. | 1976 | | | 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. | 1978 | First solar-powered and first credit card sized calculators. | | The first solar powered calculators were introduced, the Royal Solar 1, Teal Photon , and Sharp EL-8028.The Casio Mini Card LC-78 is the first credit card sized calculator. | 1980 | First hand-held computer | | The Sharp PC1211 / Tandy TRS80 PC-1 is the first hand-held computer; it has a QWERTY keypad and runs the BASIC language. |
The history behind the calculator and how it has evolved. In modern times such as today, we use calculators for doing math homework, complicated equations and to calculate trends and predictions. However, calculators weren’t always as easy as a press of a button. Lets take a look at how calculators used to be and how they evolved over time.
In the early days (2000 B.C), Egyptians created the calculator or as they called it, “the abacus”, as a mathematical system used to calculate arithmetic tasks. An abacus looked like a wide wooden ladder with beads used to represent ones, tens, hundreds and so on. Over about 1750 years (150-100 B.C),Greeks created a calculator that evolved from an arithmetic system toward astronomic (scientific star and constellation study) needs. They created the first analog computer. The analog computer was pretty much a extremely accurate form of engineering used to predict the exact locations of the Sun, Moon , and other planets. The calculator really began to develop in the 17-19 century (1600-1899 A.D).In the early 1600s, A Scottish math wizard named John Napier created Napier’s bones( a multiplicative and divisive system sort of like an abacus named after himself). It was very important because it could be used (and is still used today) to calculate large numbers instead of adding repeatedly. The upper triangles in the boxes were tenths and the lower triangles were ones.

Over 1800-1899 there were a plethora of mathematical systems that included adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division in one. Over time, they made re-models and changes so it would be easier to come up with calculations.
From 20th century to the present, 1900s-(Current time) Calculators have been changed to do even more (such as find square roots and calculate more than one operation at a time). Calculators have also been made faster and more portable. Instead of sliding beads or punching in numbers one at a time, we now select a number and an operation and we have our solution.
Summary-
The way we use calculators today weren’t always the same as earlier people used. There were a myriad of systems and ways people used their technology to improve their lives, explain science, and create the system of money. Whether you slide beads, or press buttons, math has always been around.