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a French mathematician. He was born in ClermontFerrand, France. His father's name was Etienne.. Pascal
was completely educated by his father. In 1642, at the age
of eighteen, French mathematician Blaise Pascal built the
first automatic mechanical calculator that could add and
subtract called the Pascaline. It did not become
commercially popular, as it was less expensive to hire a
person to do the calculations by hand.
Calculator, machine for automatically performing
arithmetical operations and certain mathematical
functions. Modern calculators are descendants of a digital
arithmetic machine devised by Blaise Pascal in 1642.
Later in the 17th century, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz created
a more advanced machine, and, especially in the late 19th
century, inventors produced calculating machines that
were smaller and smaller and less and less laborious to
use. In the early decades of the 20th century, desktop
adding machines and other calculating devices were
developed. Some were key-driven, others required a
rotating drum to enter sums punched into a keyboard, and
later the drum was spun by electric motor.