Editing Mechanical calculator (section)

===Overview===
The 17th century marked the beginning of the history of mechanical calculators, as it saw the invention of its first machines, including [[Pascal's calculator]], in 1642.<ref name="INVENT"/><ref>Please see [[Pascaline#Pascal versus Schickard]]</ref> [[Blaise Pascal]] had invented a machine which he presented as being able to perform computations that were previously thought to be only humanly possible.<ref>"The arithmetical machine produces effects which approach nearer to thought than all the actions of animals. But it does nothing which would enable us to attribute will to it, as to the animals.", Pascal, Pensées [//www.bartleby.com/48/1/6.html Bartleby.com, Great Books online, Blaise Pasdcal, Thoughts]</ref>

{{quote |In a sense, Pascal's invention was premature, in that the mechanical arts in his time were not sufficiently advanced to enable his machine to be made at an economic price, with the accuracy and strength needed for reasonably long use. This difficulty was not overcome until well on into the nineteenth century, by which time also a renewed stimulus to invention was given by the need for many kinds of calculation more intricate than those considered by Pascal.|S. Chapman|Pascal tercentenary celebration, London, (1942)<ref name="tercent">[[#NAT_CHAP|Magazine Nature]], (1942)</ref>}}

The 17th century also saw the invention of some very powerful tools to aid arithmetic calculations like [[Napier's bones]], [[Mathematical table#Tables of logarithms|logarithmic tables]] and the [[slide rule]] which, for their ease of use by scientists in multiplying and dividing, ruled over and impeded the use and development of mechanical calculators<ref>[[#SCRI|Scripta Mathematica]], p. 128 (1932)</ref> until the production release of the [[arithmometer]] in the mid 19th century.
[[File:17th-century-mechanical-calculators -Detail.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3.0|Four of Pascal's calculators and one machine built by Lépine in 1725,<ref>[[#350YEARS|From the calculating machine of Pascal to the computer]], p. 43 (1990)</ref> [[Musée des Arts et Métiers]]]]