As an avid student of mathematical history and calculation devices, few stories captivate me more than that of Chaim Zelig Slonimski. The Polish son of a rabbi, Slonimski overcame humble beginnings to become one of the most creative calculator inventors of the 1800s. I‘d like to take you on an enriching exploration of his boundary-pushing mechanical calculating contraptions and the reactions they provoked.
You‘ll discover that while personal obligations forced Slonimski to exit the calculating field prematurely, his inventions left an outsized imprint on mathematicians and engineers for decades afterwards!
Background on a Budding Genius
Chaim Zelig Slonimski was born in 1810 in Byelostok, a modest town in the Russian Empire (now Poland). His parents, while not wealthy, ensured the studious young man received a robust religious education at yeshiva. However, Slonimski took it upon himself to dig into worldly philosophical and scientific pursuits too – from mathematics to astronomy.
As a young single man in his late 20s, Slonimski moved to Warsaw, the cosmopolitan heart of European Jewry at the time. There he lodged with the family of Abraham Stern – himself an eminent mathematician and tinkerer responsible for calculating tools that computed complex astronomy tables. One can speculate the creative environment sparked Slonimski‘s unconventional inventiveness! He soon after married Stern‘s daughter Sarah.
While supporting his new family running a publishing house, Slonimski revealed the first glimmers of his calculating genius in 1839. Now let‘s look at the revolutionary devices he created.
Overview of Slonimski‘s Groundbreaking Inventions
While just 29 in 1839, Slonimski wrote a friend about two calculating devices he was working on:
- A 20 digit logarithmic calculator
- An adding/subtracting machine
Word of his inventions soon spread, helped by demonstrations at scientific societies in Russian-occupied Poland and Germany. By 1843, he had developed:
- The adding/subtracting machine
- The logarithmic calculator
- A multiplying machine based on his own mathematical theorem
Let‘s explore how each device worked mechanically and the reactions of his contemporaries in the mathematical community.
Adding/Subtracting Machine
The adding/subtracting machine consisted of two connected brass plates marked with engraved dials representing decimal positions from 1 to 10,000. A stylus could be used to rotate sets of inner tooth gears to increment the values on each dial. Results of arithmetic operations showed up in small windows above the dials.
A novel aspect was the ability to not only add but subtract using the reverse side of the plates. However, Slonimski‘s design required the operator to manually propagate carry values between positions, risking costly user errors.
Nonetheless, the invention still managed to dazzle audiences. After presentations in Vilnius (1840) and Königsberg (1841), a reporter gushed:
"Everybody who knows digits only can, with the help of this machine, make calculations easily, fast, and without need to think."
The adding/subtracting machine concept and mechanical design directly inspired many successors, including Heinrich Kummer who essentially replicated it with his slide adder machine in 1846.
Logarithmic Calculating Device
Frustratingly, few specifics survive about the workings of Slonimski‘s logarithmic calculating device. But we know it could calculate logarithmic functions to 20 digits of accuracy. This was an incredible feat for the era before computers.
In letters from 1839, Slonimski referenced wanting to build on his adding/subtracting machine to create a complex 20 digit version focused on logarithms. Scientists who viewed early models were so impressed they tried to arrange presentations across Europe‘s greatest mathematical societies.
Carl Gustav Jacobi, hearing of the device secondhand, wrote his mathematician brother Moritz von Jacobi at the St. Petersburg Academy in 1841:
"A very skilful mechanic, Mr. Slonimski, who has been mentioned to me as the inventor of a calculating machine for logarithms which can give 20 places of decimals, intends taking his invention to that capital…"
High praise indeed! Unfortunately, no diagrams or model of this promising device survives. But the interest it provoked speaks to the uniqueness of its advanced logarithmic computations.
Multiplying Machine
The most trailblazing of Slonimski‘s inventions, however, has to be his multiplying machine based around his very own mathematical theorem! The key components were:
- Engraved cylinders mounted in a box that could slide and rotate
- Smaller digit cylinders to set the multiplicand value
- Adjusting main cylinders aligned the multiplicand with factors for the desired multiple
- Multiple product value windows displayed interim results to be summed
Slonimski‘s multiplying machine with single cylinder detail
What impressed mathematicians was the way Slonimski encoded numeric relationships directly via the theorem into physical form. The president of the St. Petersburg Academy Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky remarked:
“The invention is the ingenious application of a mathematical idea, embodied in a mechanical form…”
The multiplying machine’s blending of number theory conceptualization and mechanical execution showcased Slonimski as a polymath.
After demonstrations, the Russian Academy published Slonimski‘s mathematical proof and machine details in 1845. This machine in particular cemented his reputation as an unprecedented intellect.
Praise from Luminaries – Humboldt, Jacobi, and More
Word of Slonimski‘s calculating prodigy spread through the mathematical community rapidly in the early 1840s.
In 1844, he demonstrated his devices to leading German scientists in Berlin, including the famous naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Humboldt was so impressed he arranged an audience for Slonimski to showcase the inventions to King Frederick William IV himself!
Humboldt recounted the king‘s praise enthusiastically in a letter:
"His majesty showed the greatest interest in Slonimski’s calculating machine, asked precise questions about the mechanism and design, and graciously congratulated the inventor."
After similar acclaim presenting to the Russian Academy in 1845, Tsar Nicolas I awarded Slonimski the title of "Honorary Citizen" for his achievements.
Reactions to Slonimski‘s Calculators
| Scientist | Quote |
|---|---|
| Alexander von Humboldt | "Showed the greatest interest…graciously congratulated the inventor" |
| Tsar Nicolas I | Awarded title of "Honorary Citizen" |
| Carl Gustav Jacobi | "Inventor of a calculating machine for logarithms which can give 20 places of decimals" |
The whirlwind of high-profile praise highlights how Slonimski impressed even the intellectual elite of his era with the creativity of his calculating devices.
Lasting Impact on Future Innovators
Unfortunately, after selling the production rights to his most promising inventions in 1847, Slonimski did not build further calculators. The reasons remain unclear – perhaps seeking more financial security or turning back to religious publishing duties.
Nonetheless, his calculation advancements ushered in enduring ripples of influence:
- The slide adder mechanism copied from Slonimski‘s adding device stayed popular over a century
- Inventors like Germany‘s August Leopold Crelle iterated on his ideas
- Russian mathematician Joffe used concepts from his multiplying machine to create reusable "counting bars" teaching tools
So while family obligations led him to neglect his own inventions prematurely, Slonimski spawned a lineage of mimicry and mathematical illumination that long outlived him.
Conclusion: An Overlooked Genius
As we‘ve discovered together, Chaim Zelig Slonimski – the rabbi‘s son from small-town Poland-Lithuania – leveraged sheer creative brilliance to overcome technological limitations and define new possibilities for mechanical calculation.
While documentation sadly lacks complete technical specifics, the calculator inventions themselves and the splash they made at the time speak volumes. Leading contemporaries from mathematicians to monarchs showered the modest Jewish savant with praise and predictions of enduring fame.
Yet today Slonimski remains largely unknown outside niche history of mathematics circles. Let us appreciate how his unique adding, subtracting, logarithmic, and multiplying devices electrified the scientific world in the 1840s – inspiring waves of future innovation. And when next using a calculator or computer, spare a thought for the unsung genus Chaim Zelig Slonimski!
