History of Calculators

• The abacus has been used since ancient times for calculations, and is still widely used in Asia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus)
• Eratosthenes of Cyrene accurately calculated the circumference of the Earth in 240 BC. To find out how he did this (without using any of our FC Products!) see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes
• John Napier invented logarithms, which provided an easy way of calculating products, prior to 1614  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Napier)
• Wilhelm Schickard invented the first calculating machine that could add and subtract, in 1623 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Schickard)
• Blaise Pascal built a mechanical adding machine, in 1642 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal)
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz built the first mechanical machine that could perform all four basic arithmetic operations, in 1670 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz)
• Charles Babbage invented the Difference Engine, which could do many more calculations than simple arithmetic, in 1822 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine)
• John von Neumann invented the modern computer, in 1946 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann)
• The first all electronic desk-top calculator, the ANITA, was introduced in 1961 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumlock_ANITA_calculator)
• The first pocket calculators were introduced in the 1970s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_calculator)
• The first scientific pocket calculator, the SR-50, was introduced in 1974 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_calculator)
• The first programmable pocket calculator, the HP-65, was introduced in 1974 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-65)
• The first financial calculator, the HP-12C, was introduced in 1981 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-12C)
• There is some dispute as to which was the first graphing calculator (see the discussion at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_fx-7000G)