Reinventing machines

The transmission history of the Leibniz calculator

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8392007
AutoresFlorin-Stefan Morar, Florin‐stefan Morar (0000-0003-3415-2638, Harvard University, autor correspondente)
Ano2015
Volume48
Fascículo1
Páginas123-146
Data de publicação2015-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe British Journal for the History of Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0007-0874 • E-ISSN: 1474-001X
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0007087414000429
PMID25833800
OpenAlexW2118833479
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas13

This paper argues that we should take into account the process of historical transmission to enrich our understanding of material culture. More specifically, I want to show how the rewriting of history and the invention of tradition impact material objects and our beliefs about them. I focus here on the transmission history of the mechanical calculator invented by the German savant Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Leibniz repeatedly described his machine as functional and wonderfully useful, but in reality it was never finished and didn't fully work. Its internal structure also remained unknown. In 1879, however, the machine re-emerged and was reinvented as the origin of all later calculating machines based on the stepped drum, to protect the priority of the German Leibniz against the Frenchman Thomas de Colmar as the father of mechanical calculation. The calculator was later replicated to demonstrate that it could function ‘after all’, in an effort to deepen this narrative and further enhance Leibniz's computing acumen

Calculator · Operating system · Telecommunications · Transmission (telecommunications · Computer Science · Historical Philosophy and Science · History and Theory of Mathematics · Philosophy and History of Science