Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 1: Pre-Modern Era (Pre-1850)
1673
Gottfried Leibniz Builds the Calculating Machine

Also known as the “stepped reckoner,” this was an early mechanical calculator, demonstrated in wooden model form to the Royal Society in 1673, designed to perform all four arithmetic operations. It was an important advancement in the field of computation, paving the way for further developments in the design and construction of calculating machines, including the development of digital computers.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Movements
cybernetics, Computing Machinery
Filed under
- Ideas
- computation
- Technologies
- mechanical calculator, Stepped Reckoner
- People
- Gottfried Leibniz
- Organisations
- Royal Society
Related moments
Echoes across time
- 1951 · The Ferranti Mark I Is the First Commercially Available Electronic Computer
- 1958 · Jack St. Clair Kilby at Texas Instruments and, independently, Robert Noyce at Fairchild Arrive at the Integrated Circuit
- 1984 · Divisibility II + III (1984-1986)
Le Random editorials
- Timeline Chapter 1: Ten Top Moments, Peter Bauman, September 6, 2023
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 1—Pre-Modern Era with Marius Watz — listen with transcript on Le Random (06 Jul 2023, 46 min). Chapter 1’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify