Reinventing machines

The transmission history of the Leibniz calculator

Bibliographic Data

ID8392007
AuthorsFlorin-Stefan Morar, Florin‐stefan Morar (0000-0003-3415-2638, Harvard University, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume48
Issue1
Pages123-146
Publication date2015-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe British Journal for the History of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-0874 • E-ISSN: 1474-001X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0007087414000429
PMID25833800
OpenAlexW2118833479
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited13

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