The year 1992 marked the 350th anniversary of the construction of the first mechanical calculating machine by Pascal. From that time on, calculating machines steadily evolved from serving as tools or toys for scientists and mathematicians (Leibnitz, Bunyakovsky, and Chebychev are among the first-rate mathematicians who designed and built calculating machines) and curios for amateurs to assuming the role, by the beginning of the 20th century, of ubiquitous workhorses of the office and accounting room, until they were finally superseded by electronic computers and calculators in our own time. Ernst Martin wrote this book in 1925, when mechanical calculating machines were a symbol of high-tech sophistication in the workplace and the major manufacturers (Burroughs, Facit, Marchant, Mercedes-Euklid, Monroe, and so on) were as well known to the public as the large computer firms of today.

The book itself is rather uneven. The descriptions of calculating machines built 50 years or more before the publication date are cursory and seem to rely on the author’s unsystematic searches through the literature rather than on thorough historical investigation. The descriptions of the later machines often resemble promotional blurbs or cribs from sales catalogs. The volume is clearly aimed at the collector of old machines or purchaser of new ones rather than at the historian of technology. Nonetheless, it is a valuable document, providing a fascinating portrait of the state of the art of a technology then at its acme and now no longer with us. The original German edition of this book is now extremely rare, and the editors of MIT Press have done a definite service in publishing this translation.