World's First Calculator Blocked From Auction in France
- Editor OGN Daily
- 24 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Move comes after French scientists issued urgent appeal to prevent La Pascaline from leaving the country, calling it a ‘national treasure’.
A rare example of the first functioning calculating machine in history - one of only eight authentic Pascalines in existence - is set to be blocked from export by a Paris court which said: “Given its historical and scientific value, La Pascaline is likely to be classified as a ‘national treasure’ … which prevents the issuance of an export certificate,” adding its provisional decision “prohibits it from leaving the country”.
La Pascaline, developed by the French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642, when he was just 19, and billed as “the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction.” Christie’s eulogised further by describing the machines as “nothing less than the first attempt in history to substitute the work of a machine for that of the human mind”.
Pascal developed the instruments, the first attempt to “mechanise mental calculation”, to simplify the work of his father, who was in charge of a court tasked with restoring order to tax revenue collections in northern France, Christie’s said. The remarkable brain of this extraordinary man devised several models, each using different units for a specific purpose, such as calculating decimals, commercial transactions or taxes. This one, for surveyors, calculates in units of measurement including feet, inches and fathoms.
The scientists who raised the export alarm said the device was “the origin of modern computing” and had made France “the cradle of the computing adventure: a revolution that transformed our understanding of the world”, they wrote in a passionate plea published by Le Monde.
It was “one of the key jewels in France’s intellectual and technological heritage”, they said, accusing the state of committing an “astounding blunder” in granting Christie’s export authorisation rather than giving French institutions time to mount a bid.