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The first mechanical clocks appeared in Europe, supposedly because of inspiration by the stories that came from China about mechanical clocks. The first mechanical clocks were rather simple and just sounded a bell every hour.(15) In this period China was a very mysterious part of the world and very few dared to travel the distance, but Marco Polo is one person who did. On his return facts were mixed with tales and blown up to mythological proportions. Not so for clocks and other amazing things, like the compass, these were things that could be carried home to the motherland.

Related Articles   Tallies and Technologies by David Birch         Related Resources   pre history antiquity pre-industrial era Industrial era

1398

The earliest reference to computers came from a writer called Trevisa. He wrote about "Compotystes" meaning persons that occupied themselves with calculations of time.

1440

(1)

These tally sticks were used by the exchequer in the UK to keep track of taxes. (see also David Birch's article on Tallies and Technology)

1494

Leonardo Da Vinci drew the first clock with a pendulum. Later in the 1950-60's Japanese engineers will use this mechanism as a timer (parametron) and calculation mechanism in their computers. It was also Da Vinci who probably invented the first mechanical calculating device ever. A reconstruction of his device made it very plausible that this was true.
This was the design in his own writing. Da Vinci wrote from right to left and in reverse (you could only read it normally from a mirror). The paper or book in wich he described his device is called the "Codex" and parts of it are preserved in different museums. (2)
This was the reconstruction of his calculator, its present location is unknown to the editors   both pictures from: www.webcom.com/calc/leonardo/leonardo.html Codex photo of RRZN/RVS, University of Hannover, Germany. Replica photo of Mr. Joseph Mirabella, New York, USA.

1495

Before he began to work on the Last Supper, Leonardo designed and possibly built the first humanoid robot in the Western civilization. The robot, an outgrowth of his earliest anatomy and kinesiology studies recorded in the Codex Huygens, was designed according to the Vitruvian canon. This armored robot knight was designed to sit up, wave its arms, and move its head via a flexible neck while opening and closing its anatomically correct jaw. It may have made sounds by the use of automated drums. On the outside, the robot is dressed in a typical German-Italian suit of armor of the late fifteenth century. This robot would influence Da Vinci's later anatomical studies in which he modeled the human limbs with cords to simulate tendons and muscles.(13)

1500⁽⁵⁾

The Quipa, an aid of "computing" by means of making knots in tiny ropes was widely in use by the Inca's. Quipas were made with colors and rope lengths a combination that had its own specific meaning. The Peruvians had devised a simular handy gadget consisting of strings and knots, called a Quipu, to assist them with counting. They used a form of decimal notation the position and form of the knots indicated tens, hundreds, etc. (12)

Adam Riese (1489-1559) was the most famous and influential German arithmetician of the 16th century, and author of many popular commercial arithmetic books which made use of Indo-Arabic numerals instead of counters. (14) This promoted the use of the arabic notation in Europe tremendously.

1502

Peter Henlein, a craftsman from Nuremberg Germany, creates the first watch.

1530

The first spinning-wheel became in use in Europe. This is a nice example of parallel inventions, since these kind of wheels were also developed in India and thereabouts but much earlier.

The increasing sophistication in technology of clocks and watches resulted in making more complicated kinds of automata during the European Renaissance. Gianello Toriano's mandolin playing lady is a famous example. This "clock" technology would become of crucial importance to the further development of computer technology.

1543

Nicolaus Copernicus published the Revolutionibus, in which he stated that the planets and earth were moving around the sun. With this statement he recreated the contemporary human relationship to God as this was felt by the clergy. And as usual the authorities (i.e. the church) did not like his 'revolutionary' vision. He had a hard time surviving in the 16th century society, where all sciences and arts were subsidized by the clergy or nobility. Being supported as an artist or scientist by a maecenas (well doer) is not uncommon in this time. and the church effectively silenced Copernicus by withdrawing her support. A method still in use by modern-day politicians.

Joost Buerghi (Switzerland) developed the Logarithm table⁽⁶⁾. This marks a milestone in the development of mathematics. Much later it appeared that without the development of logarithms the computer would have taken much longer to develop.

1594

(11)

Lord John Napier (1550-1617) from Merchiston (Scotland), thought to be practicing black arts, developed the Natural Logarithm (ln). He also invented a kind of mechanical calculator, the famous Napier Bones, what made it rather simple to multiply, and wrote about it in his Rabdologica.(published posthumously in 1617) Mind that in this period people can hardly divide and multiply. If you could do so, you belong to the highest educated part of society. In almost all important technical museums, you can see originals or copies of the Napier bones: Paris Musée des Hommes et Techniques, London Science Museum, Muenchen Deutsches Museum, Washington Smithsonian Institute, etc.

picture: IBM Corporation

1600

1602

Around this year the first clock showing minutes and seconds is built by Joseph Burghi, Switzerland

1612

John Napier made the first printed use of the decimal point (after it had been invented in the Netherlands) and invented logarithms, and several devices for multiplication. The "bones" he invented were an aid to multiplication, though perhaps the chessboard calculator was the most ingenious and least known!

1614

Lord John Napier published his findings on logarithms in his tractate "Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonus Descriptio" (Description of the admirable Canon of Logarithm) and influenced with this paper the entire development of mathematical science in the United Kingdom and beyond.

1617

(12)

Napier's book was published posthumously : "Rabdologiae, sue Numertionis per Virgulas Libri duo" in which he explained extensively the method for division and multiplication using his "Napier Bones".(7)

Last Updated on 12 February, 2004

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