• Things that Count
  • Introduction
  • Part 1 Origins
  • Part 2 Modern Era
  • Part 3 Late Modern

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Of the fifty Pascalines which Pascal refers to as having been constructed under his supervision eight are known to have survived. Pictures from the relevant museums or collectors,¹ together with earlier (black and white) pictures from Jacques Payen,² are shown below. Diderot’s diagrams (1779) of the internal mechanism of the Pascaline is also shown. Details are also provided of existing replica Pascalines including the Jan Meyer Pascaline Working Exemplar, and Jan Meyer “Queen of Poland” Pascaline Replica in this collection.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

1. Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France.

• “Chancelier Séguier”, accounting machine (8 wheels)
  

• “Christina, Queen of Sweden”, scientific machine (6 wheels)
  

• “Louis Périer”, accounting machine (8 wheels)
  - offered by Louis Périer, Pascal’s nephew, to the Académie des sciences de Paris in 1711 as proof of the calculator’s capabilities.
  

• “Tardive” (late), accounting machine (6 wheels)
  

2. Musée Henri Lecoq, Clermont-Ferrand, Paris, France

• “Marguerite Périer”, scientific machine (8 wheels)
  

• “Chevalier Durant-Pascal”, accounting machine (5 wheels), with box
  - may have been designed for portable use.
  

3. Mathematisch-Physikalischer salon, Dresden, Germany

• “Queen of Poland”, accounting machine (10 wheels)
  

4. Léon Parcé collection, France

• surveying machine, 8 wheels
  - initially purchased from a dealer who believed it to be a broken music box.
  

5. IBM collection, USA

• accounting machine, 8 wheels.
  

For diagrams of the internal mechanism of the Pascaline and top view from Oeuvres de Pascal (1779) click here

¹ For more on these see an excellent article by Valéry Monnier at http://www.ami19.org/Pascaline/IndexPascaline-English.html, viewed 30 May 2013. (↑)

² M Jacques Payen, “Les exemplaires conservés de la machine de Pascal”, Revue d’histoire des sciences et de leurs applications, vol 16 n°2, 1963, pp. 161–178. (↑)

³ The above shows the image of the face plate of this Pascaline prior to restoration. Note that the numbers in this image have been digitally replaced as it was serving as the template for a computer simulation of the Pascaline by edumedia, see http://www.edumedia-sciences.com/en/search?q=pascaline&min=6&max=18&type=all, viewed 13 June 2013 (↑)

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