In 1642, a Frenchman, Blaise Pascal, invented the ‘Pascaline’ – a mechanical calculator that could add, subtract, multiply and divide.
However, it was not until nearly 200 years later that the principles of the mechanical calculator were adapted and adopted for commercial use.
The Arithmometer, invented in 1820 and produced in 1851, became the first real success story. By 1890, around 2,500 devices had been sold. The manufacturing boom of the Industrial Revolution allowed better models to be produced en masse. Between 1820 and 1914 the calculator went from being something that only the rich could afford, to being heavily used in commercial environments.
In 1902, James L. Dalton (an American), made a new push-button design and called it the ‘Dalton Adding Machine’. In 1948, the Curta calculator was developed. It was small and portable enough to hold in your hand. In the 1950s and 1960s, as computer technology developed, so too did calculators, and increasingly they were built into machines.
The first prototype of a hand-held calculator was developed by Texas Instruments in 1967 and was called ‘Cal Tech’. By 1970, the Japanese were making the first portable calculators which incorporated rechargeable batteries and used just a few chips of low power consumption. Today, calculators are ubiquitous, found in every device and enabling instant calculation anywhere.
Contribution to Retail History
Calculators expedited accounting processes throughout the supply chain making it easier and more streamlined for retailers not only at point of purchase but also in the back of the house. Conversely, calculators helped customers to better calculate and manage the overall cost of their shopping basket. Over the past decade, smartphones put a calculator at the fingertips of every user eliminating the need for separate device and enabling instantaneous price comparisons, discount offers and other calculations including currency conversions.