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Difference Engines, Another Founding Father

Difference Engines

Another Founding Father

Wilhelm Schickard

Just to reinforce the notion that computing and IT have many fathers, consider Wilhelm Schickard. In 1623, long before Pascal and Leibniz, Schickard invented a calculating machine that was used by the great astronomer Johannes Kepler.

Schickard's invention, called the "calculating clock" by his contemporaries, was the first automatic calculator. It could add and subtract six-digit numbers and indicated an overflow of this capacity by ringing a bell. For more complex calculations, a multiplication tool called Napier's bones was mounted on it. The nonprogrammable Schickard machine was based on the decimal system. Leibniz posited the more convenient binary system in 1679.

Schickard's letters to Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, explain the application of his device to the computation of astronomical tables.

The calculating clock

Schickard studied theology and oriental languages at Germany's University of Tubingen, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1609 and a master's degree in 1611. In 1613, he became a Lutheran minister. In 1619, he was appointed professor of Hebrew at the University of Tubingen, but in 1631, he changed focus and was appointed a professor of astronomy.

Schickard's research was broad and included astronomy, mathematics and surveying. He invented many machines, like one to calculate astronomical dates and one for Hebrew grammar. Schickard also made significant advances in mapmaking. He died of the plague in 1635.

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