ABSTRACT

The origins of mechanical computing devices are rooted in the European Renaissance. During this time, there was a resurgence of classicism and interest in humanistic subjects: thanks to the gradual spread of Indo-Arabic numeration and mathematics in the 16th century, scholars were performing increasingly complicated calculations. This movement heralded the decline of the use of Roman numerals and counter-boards, which had been predominantly used in both academia and commerce from the time of the Roman Empire. Great cities arose as a result of burgeoning trade throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and along with this trend came sufficient wealth to support the arts and sciences. Mathematicians and scientists needed more accurate computation on longer numbers in various areas than before. As their expertise grew, they searched for easier, quicker, and more reliable ways to calculate [7, 10, 16].