<P> The step reckoner ( or stepped reckoner ) was a digital mechanical calculator invented by the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz around 1672 and completed in 1694 . The name comes from the translation of the German term for its operating mechanism , Staffelwalze , meaning ' stepped drum ' . It was the first calculator that could perform all four arithmetic operations . </P>
<P> The step reckoner ( or stepped reckoner ) was a digital mechanical calculator invented by the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz around 1672 and completed in 1694 . The name comes from the translation of the German term for its operating mechanism , Staffelwalze , meaning ' stepped drum ' . It was the first calculator that could perform all four arithmetic operations . </P>
who came up with the type of calculator known as ' the step reckoner '
who came up with the type of calculator known as ' the step reckoner '
German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz