Design and implementation of an arithmometer with Scratch
Salvador Piris López
The arithmometer of Thomas Colmar (1784-1870) has an important place in the computer history. Lots of historians who has studied the assessments of XIX century confirm the importance of this device.
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However, the arithmometer wasn’t the first machine that made the four basic operations of: addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Previous machines, as the ones of Hahn and Müller, have achieved this efficient level during the XVIII century. But the advantages of the arithmometer are obvious: the machine was solid, authentic and successful; an industrial product made in huge quantities.
But, since the invention of the Machine, in 1820, and its position as a calculation tool, it took 50 years. Due to the imperfections found in the first models and the poor market, he started making slow progress. From 1821 till 1865, that is to say, during more than 40 years, only 500 machines were sold. Nevertheless, from 1865 till 1878, more than 1000 Machines were vended. Among them, more than 30% were machines of 6 numbers, the 60% represented machines of 8 numbers and the last 10% were machines of 10 numbers.
A very important part of this production (around 60%) was destined abroad where, on the other hand, lots of copies were created in Germany and UK.
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Regarding the implementation of this program, we have used Scratch given the fact that it is a highly developed platform and it has a big social component which encourages the collaborative work by the option of sharing the code.
The Arithmometer application in Scratch is shown down below, as well as a video tutorial where the different arithmetic operations are explained.
Videotutorial of the arithmometre application through Scratch
If you want to consult the application code previously showed through the Scratch web, click here: ARITMOMETER
Arithmometre creator: Salvador Piris López
Tutor: Xavier Molero Prieto