1642年 计算机雏形——Pascaline(加法器)

1642年计算机雏形——Pascaline（加法器）回目录

●Pascaline（加法器）

1642年，法国哲学家兼数学家布累斯·巴斯柯(Blaise Pascal)发明了第一台真正的机械计算器——加法器(Pascaline)。

全名为滚轮式加法器，当初发明它的目的是为了帮助父亲解决税务上的计算。其外观上有6个轮子，分别代表着个、十、百、千、万、十万等。只需要顺时针拨动轮子，就可以进行加法，而逆时针则进行减法。原理和手表很像，算是计算机的开山鼻祖了。

帕斯卡回目录

帕斯卡1623年出生在法国一位数学家家庭，他三岁丧母，由担任着税务官的父亲拉扯他长大成人。从小，他就显示出对科学研究浓厚的兴趣。

少年帕斯卡对他的父亲一往情深，他每天都看着年迈的父亲费力地计算税率税款，很想帮助做点事，可又怕父亲不放心。于是，未来的科学家想到了为父亲制做一台可以计算税款的机器。19岁那年，他发明了人类有史以来第一台机械计算机。

帕斯卡的计算机是一种系列齿轮组成的装置，外形像一个长方盒子，用儿童玩具那种钥匙旋紧发条后才能转动，只能够做加法和减法。然而，即使只做加法，也有个“逢十进一”的进位问题。聪明的帕斯卡采用了一种小爪子式的棘轮装置。当定位齿轮朝9转动时，棘爪便逐渐升高；?一旦齿轮转到0，棘爪就“咔嚓”一声跌落下来，推动十位数的齿轮前进一档。

Pascaline calculating machine of Blaise Pascal (1623-62),

帕斯卡发明成功后，一连制作了50台这种被人称为“帕斯卡加法器”的计算机，至少现在还有5台保存着。?比如，在法国巴黎工艺学校、英国伦敦科学博物馆都可以看到帕斯卡计算机原型。据说在中国的故宫博物院，也保存着两台铜制的复制品，是当年外国人送给慈僖太后的礼品，“老佛爷”哪里懂得它的奥妙，只把它当成了西方的洋玩具，藏在深宫里面。

帕斯卡是真正的天才，他在诸多领域内都有建树。后人在介绍他时，说他是数学家、物理学家、哲学家、流体动力学家和概率论的创始人。凡是学过物理的人都知道一个关于液体压强性质的“帕斯卡定律”，这个定律就是他的伟大发现并以他的名字命名的。他甚至还是文学家，其文笔优美的散文在法国极负盛名。可惜，长期从事艰苦的研究损害了他的健康，1662年英年早逝，死时年仅39岁。他留给了世人一句至理名言：“人好比是脆弱的芦苇，但是他又是有思想的芦苇。”

详解回目录

Blaise Pascal invented the second mechanical calculator, called alternatively the Pascalina or the Arithmetique, in 1645, the first being that of Wilhelm Schickard in 1623.

A Pascaline, signed by Pascal in 1652

Pascal began to work on his calculator in 1642, when he was only 19 years old. He had been assisting his father, who worked as a tax commissioner, and sought to produce a device which could reduce some of his workload. Pascal received a Royal Privilege in 1649 that granted him exclusive rights to make and sell calculating machines in France. By 1652 Pascal claimed to have produced some fifty prototypes and sold just over a dozen machines, but the cost and complexity of the Pascaline—combined with the fact that it could only add and subtract, and the latter with difficulty—was a barrier to further sales, and production ceased in that year. By that time Pascal had moved on to other pursuits, initially the study of atmospheric pressure, and later philosophy.

Pascaline made for French currency. The least significant denominations, sols and

deniers, are on the right.

Pascalines came in both decimal and non-decimal varieties, both of which exist in museums today. The contemporary French currency system was similar to the Imperial pounds ("livres"), shillings ("sols") and pence ("deniers") in use in Britain until the 1970s.

In 1799 France changed to a metric system, by which time Pascal's basic design had inspired other craftsmen, although with a similar lack of commercial success. Child prodigy Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz devised a competing design, the Stepped Reckoner, in 1672 which could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; Leibniz struggled for forty years to perfect his design and produce sufficiently reliable machines. Calculating machines did not become commercially viable until the early 19th century, when Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar's Arithmometer, itself using the key break through of Leibniz's design, was commercially successful.

The initial prototype of the Pascaline had only a few dials, whilst later production variants had eight dials, the latter being able to deal with numbers up to 9,999,999.

View through back of calculator above showing wheels.

The calculator had spoked metal wheel dials, with the digit 0 through 9 displayed around the circumference of each wheel. To input a digit, the user placed a stylus in the corresponding space between the spokes, and turned the dial until a metal stop at the bottom was reached, similar to the way a rotary telephone dial is used. This would display the number in the boxes at the top of the calculator. Then, one would simply redial the second number to be added, causing the sum of both numbers to appear in boxes at the top. Since the gears of the calculator only rotated in one direction, negative numbers could not be directly summed. To subtract one number from another, the method of nines' complements was used. To help the user, when a number was entered its nines' complement appeared in a box above the box containing the original value entered.

图说回目录