Talk:Computing device

Also pinwheel calculators?

How about pinwheel calculators, like Odhner Arithmometer Some of them could be quite advanced, though - I believe- not programmable. Larsbrinkhoff (talk) 06:13, 30 November 2023 (CEST)

There is a long history of mechanical aids to computation, which is covered reasonably well in Chapter One of Aspray, Computing Before Computers (I have added a link to an online copy of that in computing device). I wouldn't add the Odhner device (which is covered in Aspray) to the list now in notable early computing devices because that list tries to focus on things which were major steps along the branch from Babbage to 'real' computers. I realize that there can be debates about some of the entries in that list - e.g. Bush's Differential Analyzer (that's in there in part because it greatly encouraged people in the 1930's to think about using mechanical computation devices, and in part because it was an important indirect ancestor of Whirlwind) - but I'm not sure the Odhner device was really that consequential.

Feel free to create mechanical aids to computation, though! I plan to do the Bell Telephone Laboratories relay computing devices page, and then something about the IBM punched card accounting machines, which were important precursors to the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. (Indeed, it and the ENIAC were twins; differing most importantly in the technology used for their implementation; Atanasoff definitely changed the world! Architecturally, as originally designed, the ASCC was more advanced than the ENIAC; its faster electronic implementation was what brought the latter its subsequent fame.) Jnc (talk) 18:49, 1 December 2023 (CET)