10 Questions
Which early tool involved sliding counters along rods or wires?
Abacus
What was a significant breakthrough in manual computing in the early seventeenth century?
Logarithmic tables
What was the first commercially successful calculator in the 19th century?
Arithmometer
Which early mechanical calculators were created by Blaise Pascal and Gottfried Leibniz?
Mechanical calculators
What served as early tools for recording numbers and became common later?
Erasable clay tablets
What was the impact of the adoption of mechanical calculators on bookkeeping?
It led to the 'de-skilling' and 'feminization' of bookkeeping, replacing male bookkeepers with female bookkeepers and reducing wages for the profession.
Who developed the world's first printing calculator, which was used by the Dudley Observatory for astronomical calculations?
Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard
What was the purpose of the cash register invented by James Ritty in 1879?
To serve as an adding machine capable of expressing values in dollars and cents
What was the main driver for the development of adding and calculating machines during the American Gilded Age?
A growing demand for efficient and affordable information for corporations with multiple layers of management
What led to the replacement of male bookkeepers with female bookkeepers in the late 1800s?
The introduction of mechanical calculators, which made bookkeeping work more accessible to people of average ability
Test your knowledge about the aids to manual calculating discussed in section 1.2 of Milestones in Computing. Learn about early tools for recording numbers such as tablets and the ancient calculating aid, the abacus.
Make Your Own Quizzes and Flashcards
Convert your notes into interactive study material.
Get started for free
