Pictures of gottfried wilhelm leibniz calculator

Early mechanical calculator

The stepped reckoner or Leibniz calculator was a mechanical calculator invented by the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (started in 1673, when he presented a wooden model to the Royal Society of London^[2] and completed in 1694).^[1] The name comes from the translation of the German term for its operating mechanism, Staffelwalze, meaning "stepped drum".

It was the first calculator that could perform all four basic arithmetic operations.^[3]

Its intricate precision gearwork, however, was somewhat beyond the fabrication technology of the time; mechanical problems, in addition to a design flaw in the carry mechanism, prevented the machines from working reliably.^[4][5]

Two prototypes were built; today only one survives in the National Library of Lower Saxony (Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek) in Hanover, Germany.

Several later replicas are on display, such as the on