Difference Engine, 1822 – Charles Babbage's mechanical device to calculate polynomials.Stepped Reckoner, 1672 – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's mechanical calculator that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide.Pascaline, 1642 – Blaise Pascal's arithmetic machine primarily intended as an adding machine which could add and subtract two numbers directly, as well as multiply and divide by repetition.Castle clock, 1206 – Al-Jazari's castle clock, a hydropowered mechanical astronomical clock, was the earliest programmable analog computer.
Cosmic Engine, 1092 – Su Song's hydro-mechanical astronomical clock tower invented during the Song dynasty, which featured the use of an early escapement mechanism applied to clockwork.Antikythera mechanism, c. 100 BC – A mechanical astronomical clock.They made precision scientific instruments Of the light emitted by vaporized elements In 2016, NASA announced that its Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments program would use a mechanical computer to operate in the harsh environmental conditions found on Venus. The use of mechanical computers declined in the 1970s and was rare by the 1980s. The evolution culminated in the 1970s with the introduction of inexpensive handheld electronic calculators.
Mechanical computers continued to be used into the 1960s, but were quickly replaced by electronic calculators, which-with cathode-ray tube output-emerged in the mid-1960s. From Yuri Gagarin's first manned spaceflight until 2002, every manned Soviet and Russian spacecraft Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz was equipped with a Globus instrument showing the apparent movement of the Earth under the spacecraft through the displacement of a miniature terrestrial globe, plus latitude and longitude indicators. Noteworthy are mechanical flight instruments for early spacecraft, which provided their computed output not in the form of digits, but through the displacements of indicator surfaces. Mechanical computers reached their zenith during World War II, when they formed the basis of complex bombsights including the Norden, as well as the similar devices for ship computations such as the US Torpedo Data Computer or British Admiralty Fire Control Table. Mechanical computers can be either analog, using smooth mechanisms such as curved plates or slide rules for computations or digital, which use gears. One model, the Ascota 170 accounting macine sold in the 1960s calculated square roots. More complex examples could carry out multiplication and division-Friden used a moving head which paused at each column-and even differential analysis. The most common examples are adding machines and mechanical counters, which use the turning of gears to increment output displays. A mechanical computer is a computer built from mechanical components such as levers and gears rather than electronic components.
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