Per Georg Scheutz

Scheutz studied law at Lund University, graduating in 1805. He then worked as a legal expert and translator (he translated several works of William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott) before turning predominantly to liberal politics and mechanical engineering.

File:Scheutz mechanical calculator.png

He is most known for his inventions; the best known of these is the Scheutzian calculation engine, invented in 1837 and finalized in 1843. This machine, which he constructed with his son Edvard Scheutz, was based on Charles Babbage's difference engine. In 1851 they obtained funds from government to build an improved model, which was created in 1853 (was roughly the size of a piano), and subsequently demonstrated at the World's Fair in Paris, 1855. The machine was then sold in 1856 to the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Ut1wgt6kSBEC|title=Specimens of Tables, Calculated, Stereomoulded, and Printed by Machinery|last=Scheutz|first=George|last2=Scheutz|first2=Edward|date=1857|publisher=Whitnig|pages=Preface 8–12, 14–15; p. 3|language=en}}{{Cite book|title=First Printing Calculator|last=Merzbach|first=Uta C.|author-link= Uta Merzbach |last2=Zoology|first2=Smithsonian Contributions To|last3=Ripley|first3=S. Dillon|last4=Merzbach|first4=Uta C.|pages=8–9, 13, 25|citeseerx = 10.1.1.639.3286}} In 1857 British government ordered another model, which was built by Donkin's company in 1859.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/differenceengine00doro|url-access=registration|title=The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer|last=Swade|first=Doron|date=2002-10-29|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=9780142001448|pages=[https://archive.org/details/differenceengine00doro/page/4 4], 207|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jlmVKZ1psCkC&pg=PA37|title=The Universal Machine: From the Dawn of Computing to Digital Consciousness|last=Watson|first=Ian|date=2012-05-17|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-642-28102-0|pages=37–38|language=en}}

The devices were used for creating logarithmic tables.

While the machine was not perfect and could not produce complete tables, Martin Wiberg reworked the construction from the ground up and in 1875 created a compact device which would print complete tables.

Scheutz was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1856.

• Difference engine
• Martin Wiberg
• Timeline of computing hardware before 1950

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book|author=Michael Lingren|title=Glory and Failure: The Difference Engines of Johann Müller, Charles Babbage and Georg and Edvard Scheutz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=plgMl2yfVkwC|year=1990|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-12146-0}}
• Mario G. Losano (ed.), Scheutz: La macchina alle differenze. Un secolo di calcolo automatico, Etas Libri, Milano 1974, pp. 164.
• {{Cite journal|last=Lindgren|first=M.|date=1990-12-01|title=The Swedish difference engines|url=https://ir.cwi.nl/pub/18182|journal=CWI Quarterly|language=en|volume=3|issue=4|issn=0922-5366}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Archibald|first=Raymond Clare|date=1947|title=P. G. Scheutz, Publicist, Author, Scientific Mechanician, and Edvard Scheutz, Engineer,—Biography and Bibliography|journal=Mathematics of Computation|language=en-US|volume=2|issue=18|pages=238–245|doi=10.1090/S0025-5718-47-99591-4|issn=0025-5718|doi-access=free}}

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Category:1785 births

Category:1873 deaths

Category:19th-century Swedish inventors

Category:19th-century Swedish businesspeople

Category:19th-century Swedish lawyers

Category:People connected to Lund University

Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences