Wild computing devices from the late 1800s and early 1900s
Summary: At the beginning of the 20 century, inventors put computing devices on everything from scales to cheese cutters.
Image 2 of 26
Filed: Nov. 11, 1890
Issued: Dec 15, 1891
Inventor: Dorr E. Felt
Along with using a pressing motion to record the machine calculations instead of a striking motion, Felt believed his invention provided other improvements, such as a better method of returning the numeral-wheels to zero, automatically recording any zeros to the right of the number being recorded, requiring less force to depress the device's keys, and improved calculation.
Image taken from U.S. Patent 465,255 - Digitized by Google
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
RE: Wild computing devices from the late 1800s and early 1900s
There was something called an "analytical engine" which was actually shown to be Turing complete, although it was never actually constructed.
It never gained the funding and political support it needed, and would eventually become obsolete with the invention of computers based on electricity.
Still, there are some novels written on the idea of "what if this had actually be completed, and we had computing before electricity?"
RE: Wild computing devices from the late 1800s and early 1900s
A local AC train carrying stone/cement was overloaded and causes a major brush fire in 3 towns.
I wonder if Wilson's time stamp is y2k approved and if it stamps past 2012?
The Automaton
It was actually a hoax and housed a chess master (Pilsbury?).
Nifty mechanics tho.