In the early 20th century, William A. Morschhauser of New York City became the exclusive American distributor of the Millionaire calculating machine. He placed machines at several United States ...

In 1867, Frederick A. P. Barnard, a mathematician and the president of Columbia University in New York, served as a judge at the Exposition universelle, a world’s fair held in Paris. There he saw a ...

While working as a bank clerk, William Seward Burroughs saw a need for an improved calculator, so he invented one, and was issued four patents for the first successful “calculating machine” on August ...

1954: IBM builds the first calculating machine to use solid-state transistors instead of vacuum tubes. IBM already had a business selling calculating machines, and it was humming along quite nicely.

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Gil Press writes about technology, entrepreneurs and innovation. This book is a tale of two quests. The first is Charles Babbage’s ...

The decision to use electronics for our calculating machines has long been decided. However, that doesn’t mean that mechanical engineers didn’t put up a valiant, if ultimately futile, fight.