Scheutz Difference Engine
date: label: date made
content: 1853
name: label: maker
content: Georg and Edvard Scheutz
notes: label: Description
content: This is the first printing calculator sold. From ancient times, scientists and mathematicians have calculated numerical tables. These tables were often rife with error, both from incorrect calculations and from errors in reproduction. In the early 1800s, the English mathematician Charles Babbage proposed a machine called a difference engine that would compute and print automatically a large class of tables. Although Babbage's machine was never completed, it inspired the Swedish publisher Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard to build this instrument. It was exhibited at the world's fair held in Paris in 1855 and sold to the Dudley Observatory in Schenectedy, New York. It also was the first computing machine to carry out computations under U.S. government contract.
label: Description
content: For a related object, see 1988.0798.01.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Merzbach, Uta C., <I>Georg Scheutz and the First Printing Calculator</I>, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977.
label: Description
content: Lindgren, Michael, <I>Glory and Failure: The Difference Engines of Johann Mueller, Charles Babbage and Georg and Edvard Scheutz</I>, trans. Craig G. McKay. Linkoping, Sweden: Linkoping University, 1987. Reprinted by MIT Press, 1990.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Sweden: Stockholm, Stockholm
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Worlds Fair
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Calculating Machines
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Victor Comptometer Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.323659
label: catalog number
content: 323659
label: accession number
content: 250163
objectType: label: Object Name
content: difference engine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (mechanism material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (printout material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (base material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 56 cm x 170 cm x 58 cm; 22 1/16 in x 66 15/16 in x 22 13/16 in