The ternary calculating machine of Thomas Fowler

[eub]

http://www.mortati.com/glusker/fowler/index.htm

A large, wooden calculating machine was built in 1840 by Thomas Fowler in his workshop in Great Torrington, Devon, England. In what may have been one of the first uses of lower bases for computing machinery, Fowler chose balanced ternary to represent the numbers in his machine. Very little evidence of this machine has survived.

There is, naturally, a http://www.thomasfowler.org.uk

There is, charmingly, a http://www.ternary.info , but I only can get at it in the cache.

Comments

[hattifattener]

Very nifty. I didn't have any trouble looking at www.ternary.info directly.

I wonder why none of the early mechanical computers used bit-serial (or trit-serial) architectures?

[eub.livejournal.com]

It would seem to have saved on woodcarving, hm. What was the earliest bit-serial architecture?