Schwilgué's large adding machine
(to be on show at the Bonn Arithmeum from May to October 2015)
29 March 2015.
The picture above gives a glimpse of a large adding machine constructed
by Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué (1776-1856), the author of the third
astronomical clock (1838-1843)
of the Strasbourg cathedral. This machine will be part of an upcoming exhibition
at the Arithmeum in Bonn from May to October 2015. Here, I merely want
to give some context about the rediscovery of this machine, as it is likely
that in the very near future there will be attempts to wipe out
the circumstances of this rediscovery.
- This adding machine is only very little known, and no photographs of
it have been published prior to 2014, although a number of people have seen it.
- I first learned about this machine in 1988, but I only tried to locate
it around 2002, at the same time as I tried to locate other mechanisms,
such as an adding machine patented in 1844. (see "An Early (1844) Key-Driven Adding Machine", IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 59-65, January-March 2008)
These machines had been stored in the Strasbourg museums, but little
was known of what happened to them since WWII, and there were even
doubts about their existence.
- In 2006, I became one of the founders of the committee overseeing
Schwilgué's astronomical clock, and this may have helped raise some
interest in some of the museums in Strasbourg.
- In 2007, after having found it through an online catalogue made
by the ETH Zürich, I examined the small adding machine located there,
and it was used to illustrate the article published on this machine.
- In early 2009, a curator of one of the Strasbourg museums happened
to locate the above pictured machine in a cellar, and I was immediately
notified. Some time later, the machine was made accessible for study.
- I examined, studied and completely analyzed the machine in early
July 2009. A comprehensive report was then written, but not made public.
It could have been made public in 2009, but I decided not to, for a number
of very good reasons.
- In early January 2014, I suggested to the curator of the Strasbourg
historical museum to move this machine from its temporary location
(where it had been since 2009) to the historical museum, for better storage.
This suggestion was accepted a few months later.
- In late January 2014, Mr. X, a Swiss retired computer scientist
who had been working in machine translation and only recently came to develop
a habit of making "sensational discoveries" in the history of computer science,
independently
noticed Schwilgué's small adding machine in the collection
of scientific instruments at ETH Zürich. This led Mr. X
to the article I published in 2008, the first article describing this machine
in detail, and the first article to highlight one of its key features,
and also the first to relate it to the Schilt machine.
(This article was sent in 2008 to
the curator of the ETH collection, but somehow it did not attract much
attention.)
- My article, in turn, led Mr. X to Strasbourg, and
it is there that he saw the large adding machine in the storage of
the historical museum, on December 9, 2014. This can of course not
be considered an independent rediscovery, since the machine was
brought to the museum at my suggestion, and since Mr. X
was led to the museum after having read my article!
- Although Mr. X has the right to work freely on a topic,
I also consider that the relations between researchers should involve
fair play and some humility. A researcher is not
a journalist.
- Given that I had analyzed this machine in the first place,
is it normal that another
person, who does not need to add this machine to his trophies (museums are
full of items wanting to be studied!), still refuses
to respect my investment? Couldn't Mr. X have waited?
Why should I have accepted to collaborate with Mr. X, given that
all the analysis had already been done?
Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but fair play and chivalry are things I value.
- After Mr. X, the machine was examined by other persons,
in particular in March 2015 by Dr. Ina Prinz, curator of the Arithmeum in Bonn.
This examination was probably triggered by the first visit, but also by an
article published by Andreas Stiller in the German c't magazine,
after contacts with Mr. X. In any case, at some point
it was decided to lend this machine, as well as Schwilgué's
small adding machines (of which the Strasbourg museums have several) to
the Arithmeum, for a temporary exhibition to be held from May to October
2015 on the topic of "Clockmakers and calculating machines".
- As a consequence of this exhibition, and the intentional
publicity (and also libel!) caused by Mr. X, it is likely
that a detailed description of the machine will be published, by the
Arithmeum, but also by Mr. X, or other people interested
in this machine. This is all fine, except that although I did not publish
on this machine, I wish that my first examination and analysis
of the machine be recognized. On the other hand, I have to admit that
it is difficult to recognize the work of a person without having
seen any of it!
- I could right away put a complete description of the machine online,
and this would once and for all settle the matter of anteriority.
But I have decided not to publish that way. Instead, in order not
to lose my claims to the anteriority of a complete description
of Schwilgué's large adding machine, I have done the following:
- I have decided to deposit my work in several sealed packages.
One of these packages
(pli cacheté) is kept by the
French Academy of Sciences,
and these packages might be used in the future in order to sort out
claims about the anteriority of a complete description of the machine.
- I have also decided to release my work, but in an encrypted form.
My work is available here (binary file).
In the future,
I intend to release the method to read this file, so that everybody
can then verify my anteriority.
Again, I could publish right away, but I prefer not to do so,
and I accept that others, who were not the first ones to study this machine
and who were led to the machine through my earlier work,
will publish descriptions of it first.
Denis Roegel
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