The Curious Calculating Curiosity of César Caze

Have you ever wondered who invented the first mechanical calculator able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide? Would it surprise you to learn this pivotal innovation dates all the way back to the 17th century? Meet César Caze – an early pioneer in mechanical calculation you may never have heard of. But while limited compared to today‘s computers, Caze‘s primitive digit-slider machine introduced concepts that were centuries ahead of their time.

Let‘s explore Caze‘s curious calculating curiosity! Understanding its workings and historical context helps appreciate how this little-known contraption contributed to the eventual development of modern digital computers.

Why Caze Matters in Early Computing History

In the late 1600s, mathematical calculation was incredibly tedious without tools like the abacus. Caze foresaw the potential for a mechanical device to automate arithmetic. His simple decimal adding machine incorporated movable digit markers and display windows – fundamental features found in all subsequent calculating machines.

Respected mathematician and Caze‘s frequent correspondent Gottfried Leibniz recognized the importance of developing calculating devices, writing in 1703:

"The business of calculation can be done by a machine; this has long been desired but still remains imperfect. Progress has been slow because clever people have not turned their minds to this."

While a friend rather than admirer of Caze, Leibniz‘s words underline the vision Caze had for furthering calculation through technology.

How Caze‘s Calculating Curiosity Functioned

Caze demonstrated his device in 1696 and obtained a patent in 1711, naming it the "New Arithmetical Machine". It consisted primarily of flat wooden rulers marked 0-9 twice along their lengths. By sliding rulers left and right with a stylus, operators aligned digits in tiny windows to show numbers for arithmetical operations.

The upper digits registered values for adding, lower complementing digits handled subtraction. Upper and lower sets moved independently without carry actions between them. This severely limited the range of numbers and calculations possible.

Additional slide rulers on the right supported French pre-decimal currency (sols and deniers) for interfacing with the franc livre system still prevalent in banking/commerce. But since the decimal rulers couldn‘t carry left, even currency sums were highly constrained.

Why Caze‘s Device Was More Novelty Than Practical Tool

Lacking any kind of tens-carry mechanism between columns severely hindered usefulness for serious math problems. And the small displayed digit windows afforded little precision in reading during operation.

Yet while crude and limited, Caze incorporated a few innovations not present in previous or contemporary calculating aids:

• Movable numbered rulers as digit markers – precursors to registers in modern computers
• Tiny display windows – akin to today‘s digital displays
• Separate additive and complementary digits

So while curiosity rather than viable tool, we can view Caze‘s ideas as conceptual precursors to key mechanisms integrated effectively in later calculators. Indeed, loose similarities exist to certain functionality in Blaise Pascal‘s pioneering 17th century Pascaline.

Caze‘s Influence on Future Generations of Calculators

Of course, Caze‘s machine bore little semblance to the integrated, automated general purpose calculating machines developed in the 19th and 20th centuries by innovators like Charles Babbage, Dorr Felt, and Howard Aiken.

However, historians widely recognize that pioneering devices like Caze‘s were important incremental steps toward more useful and powerful mechanical, then electromechanical, and eventually electronic digital computers.

Let‘s compare a few specific developments in calculation after Caze to demonstrate the path:

1725 – Jacob Leupold creates his "computational machine" with extendable carriage to record tens-carries between digit rows for greater precision.

1820 – Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar patents the Arithmometer – the first widely sold mechanical calculator strong and reliable enough for daily practical business use.

1851 – French inventor Léon Bollée develops an automatic multiplier driven via hand crank to perform repeated additions.

1902 – William Seward Burroughs essentially modernizes mechanical calculation with the arithometer and printer integrated into a single cased machine he names the Calculator.

And this timeline spans just up to the early 20th century. We still had relays, tubes, transistors, and finally integrated circuits ahead before electronic digital computers emerged in the 1940s!

So while Caze viewed his creation as more a scientific novelty, he paved ideas that underlie fundamental computer mechanisms we now take for granted. Porter Garnett, author of The Electronic Brain Perplexed, summarized Caze‘s technical contribution quite aptly:

"Sometimes very small changes make history turn corners."

Curiosity Satisfied?

I hope you‘ve enjoyed this up-close look at César Caze and his 17th century calculating curiosity! We covered quite a span of history in a short space. When viewed through a broad lens, early pioneers like Caze had a far greater conceptual influence than their primitive machines alone may reveal.

Now maybe you‘ll remember Caze‘s name next time early computing history arises. And who knows – someday your novel idea or hobby project could plant seeds for changes we can‘t yet envision! But for now, stay curious!