The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-18 00:00:00

A NEW CALCULATING MACHINE.

I
We read in the Moniteur—" M. Thomas, of Colmar,
has lately made the finishing improvements: in the calcu-
lating machine, called the arithmometer, as which he has
been working foi upwards of 30 years. Pascal and
pndertod
Leib-
nitz, in the 17th century, and Diderot at a later
endeavoured to construct a machine which might serve
as a substitute for human intelligence in the combination
of figures, but failed. M. Thomas's arithmometer mary,
he used without :the least trouble or possibility
and i.
not only for addition, subtraction, multiplicartoino,nsuhuc
vision, but also for much more complex operations,
as the extraction of the square root, involution,.
figuresthe reso-
lution of triangles, &c,c. A: multiplication of eight
a d ivi
by eight others is made in eighteen secondso h
Sion of sixteen figures by eight figures in 4seconds;
and in one minute and a
quarter one canextract
square root of 16 figui es, and also rove the acouraoy
the
of the calculation. The arithmometer adapts itself to
every sort of combination. As an
instance
of the
wonderful extent of its powers, we may state that it
can furnish in a few seconds
products amounting toi
99,999,.999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999 ! Alll
a,rvei.
long number, comparable to the infinite multitude' of
stars which stud the firmament, or the particles of
.du.st
.
which float in the atmosphere.
The working of thlsu
sztrument is however, most simple. To raise or lowerl a
means
tut screw, to tern a Winch a few times, and, by
o a button, to slide off a lal'e ht
or from right to left, is
simply reproducing the
etawl
whole
ee
efereormeLleftto Insteadrig oi
the operations of man's intelligence,
the arithrnometer relieves bt intelligence from the ne-
cessity of making the operations.ta Instead of repeating
responses dictated to it, this instrument instantaneously
dictates the proper answer to the man who asks it a
question. It is not a matter producing
Lot matter which thinks reflects, reasons, calculates and
material effects,
executes all the most difficultand complicated arithmetical
operations with a rapidity and infallibility which defies all
the calculators in the world. The arithmometer is more-
over a simple instrument, of very little volume and easily`
portable. It is already used in many great financial esta-
blishments, where considerable economy is realised by its
eruPloyment. It will soon be considered as indispensable,
and be as generally used as a cloak, which was formerly
an; be
to be seen in palaces, and is now in every cottage.
Generally speaking, the practical application of any great
mechanical improvement involves an injury to certain in-
terests, but that is not the case blare. The arithmometer
Will not cause to the persons employed in banks, count-
isig-houses, and public offices any such
kuitt prejudice as the
ers suffered from the inventionof the stocking frame,
the spinners from the spinning jennies, or copyists from
the invention of printin
this machine even dg. The person who makes use of
ail y does not therefore lose his apti-
tude for calculation in the ordinary way. On the contrary,
although a child may be easily taught to perform the most
complicated calculations by the use of the instrument,
the more expert in figures the operator is the more ad-
vantage he will derive from the aid of this machine. The
arithmometer is not only a Palpable evidence of a great
difficulty overcome ; it is an element of wealth, a new
Means of multiplying time, like the locomotive engine
and the electric telegraph. The discovery is an event
the full importance of which it is impossible as yet to
measure."
A' tic

rule has ken issued by e Cour of Common Pleas,
under Cardweh's Act, against the Brighton Railway
they should not con-
Company, to show cause why
struot a covered station for the accommodation, of the
travellers on the CAterham railway.