Hello friend! Today I‘m excited to walk you through a fascinating piece of obscure computing history – the complete story of little-known inventors Moses and William Pullen. From early origins to pioneering devices and the founding of a bold business venture, we‘ll cover key details in the journey of an ingenious 1800s father-son duo. Let‘s dive in!
An Introduction to Computing Trailblazers Moses and William Pullen
Our story starts in 19th century Britain, where a clever schoolmaster named Moses Pullen and his mechanically-minded son William are about to change technological history with the invention of an innovative calculating machine. But just who were these unfamiliar inventors whose ambitions steered them to entrepreneurship at the dawn of the computer age? Let‘s investigate further!
Moses Pullen: Scholarly Inventor Balancing Teaching and Tinkering
Moses first enters the historical records in 1841 as a 20-year old mechanic residing in industrial Bolton. But by 1851 a passion for academics had led him to become a schoolmaster in Manchester where he met and married a woman named Ann. Moses continued teaching while now fathering seven daughters and a son named William, who was born in 1856 after the family moved to Painswick, Gloucestershire.
Manchester in the 1800s underwent booming industrialization. This manufacturing hub nurtured Moses’ mechanical interests, undoubtedly influencing his later inventing. By the 1860s while conducting science classes, Moses gained a particularly eager pupil named Alexander Bickerton. Little did he know, Bickerton would grow up to become New Zealand’s first chemistry professor!
As Moses raised his children in the 1870 Painswick household, census records reveal his role solely as a teacher. Young son William had become a pupil-teacher himself by 1971. Tragically just a decade later though, family records indicate Moses’ wife Ann died leaving him a widower with 4 unmarried daughters. Despite the hardship, Moses carried on – little did he know his greatest invention lay just ahead!
From Schoolhouse to Startup: Moses and William’s Calculating Quest
Moses briefly ran Bentham Grammar School as headmaster from 1874-1876 before resigning to pursue inventing. Now in his 50s, Moses partnered with William, freshly an adult at age 18, to develop an extraordinary innovation – a mechanical calculating device dubbed the “Bentham Calculating Machine”.
The Bentham Calculating Machine: A Mechanical Marvel
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Awarded a British patent in 1874, this wood and brass machine represented a major 19th century advancement in computing equipment. The Bentham device featured mechanical components allowing users to accurately and efficiently add long columns or sets of numbers. Its clever clockwork construction made Moses and William early pioneers in computing technology years before electronics!
By 1875, Moses and William ambitiously moved into startup mode by founding the Bentham Calculating Machine Company. They built an impressive two-story brick factory featuring modern equipment like a grinding wheel, punching tools and four horsepower engine to produce their invention. Check out this 19th century maker space!
Investor Capital Fuels Mass Production and Market Potential
Moses and William astutely sought investors to launch large scale manufacturing. Offering 2000 shares at £5 per share brought in £10,000 of capital by 1875 – equivalent to over £1 million pounds today! Clearly the calculating device showed commercial promise.
Newspaper ads even marketed directly to accountants:
"The Bentham Calculating Machine aims to relieve you of mind-numbing column addition drudgery!".
Unfortunately no sales or financial records exist today to gauge customer adoption rates. But patents being secured in multiple countries evidenced global entrepreneurial ambition to popularize this English innovation worldwide!
Lasting Legacy: Obscure Inventors Steered Early Computing’s Course
While the Bentham Calculating Company eventually dissolved, Moses and William’s nineteenth century achievements represented major momentum toward modern computing. Mechanical calculation fueled the era‘s pervasive automation appetite. These revolution wasn’t just industrial – it was computational.
Moses passed away in 1896 and William subsequently fades from records. But their Victorian calculating quest embodied relentless curiosity and ambition characteristic of history’s greatest technological trailblazers. The Bentham machine‘s encapsulation of iterative engineering foreshadowed computing precursors like Charles Babbage‘s 19th century "Difference Engine" and IBM progenitor Herman Hollerith’s tabulators.
[insert image of Babbage and Hollerith]So we applaud these little-known schoolteacher-inventors today not just for their unique Victorian calculating machine, but for the symbolic spark of computational creativity they passed to future generations. Moses and William Pullen proved with some mechanical maverick spirit, even humble schoolteachers could steer the trajectory of emerging technologies for the better!
