Calculating machine

A calculating machine is a machine designed to come up with calculations (i.e. computations); the most famous is probably the Victorian British scientist Charles Babbage's Difference Engine (No. 2), designed in the 1840s but never completed in the inventor's lifetime. A working example, based on Babbage's original specifications and using only materials available during the mid-19th century, was built at the London Science Museum in the late 1990s.

Calculating machines shouldn't be confused with adding machines, which are for solving sums.

See also

• Calculator
• History of computing hardware

Patents

• U.S. patent 388,116 — Calculating machine — W. S. Burroughs