History Of Computers
The first adding machine, a precursor of the digital computer, was devised in 1642 by the French scientist, mathematician, and philosopher Blaise Pascal. This device employed a series of ten-toothed wheels, each tooth representing a digit from 0 to 9. The wheels were connected so that numbers could be added to each other by advancing the wheels by a correct number of teeth. In the 1670s the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz improved on this machine by devising one that could also multiply.