caption death_date death_place birth_place nationality birth_date known_for image article_title name
monument in colmar march 12 , 1870 paris , france colmar , france french may 5 , 1785 arithmometer thomas charles xavier.jpg charles xavier thomas
 charles xavier thomas
charles xavier thomas

charles xavier thomas de colmar -lrb- may 5 , 1785 -- march 12 , 1870 -rrb- was a french inventor and entrepreneur best known for designing , patenting and manufacturing the first commercially successful mechanical calculator , the arithmometer and for founding the insurance companies `` le soleil '' and `` l'aigle '' which , under his leadership , became the number one insurance group in france at the beginning of the second empire .
after a short employment in the french administration , he joined the french army in 1809 eventually reaching the level of general manager of the supply store of all of the armies located in spain in 1813 .
shortly thereafter he was promoted to inspector of supply for the entire french army .
it was during that time that he conceived the idea of the arithmometer to help him with the great deal of calculations that he had to perform .
back into civilian life , in 1819 , he co-founded the fire insurance company `` phoenix '' which he left quickly because of the lack of support for his new ideas from his partners and shareholders .
ten years later , in 1829 , he started the fire insurance company `` le soleil '' that he grew by merger and acquisitions until his death .
in 1843 he started another insurance company called `` l'aigle incendie '' .
with the sun -lrb- soleil -rrb- symbol of previous kings of france and the eagle -lrb- aigle -rrb- reminiscent of napoleon , he had all bases covered to attract a wide range of customers in a very divided 19th century france .
by his death the `` aigle - soleil '' group was the biggest insurance business in france and he owned 81 % of it .
eighty years later , in 1946 , it was nationalized and finally merged with `` la national '' in 1968 to become the gan company which is still in business today .
thomas was made chevalier of the légion d'honneur for his invention of the arithmometer in 1821 .
this is when he changed his name from `` m. charles xavier thomas '' to `` m. le chevalier thomas , de colmar '' and later simply `` thomas de colmar '' .
again because of the arithmometer , he was raised to the level of officier of the légion d'honneur in 1857 .
initially thomas spent all of his time and energy on his insurance business , therefore there is a hiatus of more than thirty years in between the first model of the arithmometer introduced in 1820 and its true commercialization in 1852 .
by the time of his death in 1870 , his manufacturing facility had built around 1,000 arithmometers , making it the first mass-produced mechanical calculator in the world , and at the time , the only mechanical calculator reliable and dependable enough to be used in places like government agencies , banks , insurance companies and observatories just to name a few .
the manufacturing of the arithmometer went on for another 40 years until around 1914 .
he married francesca -lrb- frasquita -rrb- garcia de ampudia alvarez in seville in 1812 .
she came from an old andalusian noble family .
together , they had ten children : joseph thomas d'alvarez , charlotte -lrb- countess de rancy -rrb- , louis thomas who married livia carafa , duchess of bojano and took the name of thomas de bojano , frasquita -lrb- mrs soultzner d'enschwyl -rrb- and henriette -lrb- countess de dalmas -rrb- .
