Schickard calculating clock
E809516
The Schickard calculating clock was an early 17th-century mechanical calculator designed by Wilhelm Schickard, often regarded as one of the first known attempts to build an automatic computing machine.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Schickard calculating clock canonical | 1 |
| Schickard’s calculating clock | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9596486 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Schickard calculating clock Context triple: [Wilhelm Schickard, notableWork, Schickard calculating clock]
-
A.
Napier's bones
Napier's bones are a manually operated calculating device using numbered rods to simplify and speed up multiplication and division.
-
B.
Orrery
An orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system that illustrates the relative motions of the planets and moons around the Sun.
-
C.
Horologium Oscillatorium
Horologium Oscillatorium is a landmark 1673 treatise by Christiaan Huygens that laid the foundations of pendulum clock theory and classical mechanics, including an early formulation of the laws of motion and the tautochrone problem.
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D.
Analytical Engine
The Analytical Engine was Charles Babbage’s pioneering 19th-century design for a fully programmable mechanical computer, featuring concepts like a central processing unit and memory that anticipated modern computing.
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E.
Astronomical Clock
The Astronomical Clock in Prague is a medieval timepiece and astronomical instrument famous for its intricate mechanical design and hourly animated figures, making it one of the city’s most iconic landmarks.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Schickard calculating clock Target entity description: The Schickard calculating clock was an early 17th-century mechanical calculator designed by Wilhelm Schickard, often regarded as one of the first known attempts to build an automatic computing machine.
-
A.
Napier's bones
Napier's bones are a manually operated calculating device using numbered rods to simplify and speed up multiplication and division.
-
B.
Orrery
An orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system that illustrates the relative motions of the planets and moons around the Sun.
-
C.
Horologium Oscillatorium
Horologium Oscillatorium is a landmark 1673 treatise by Christiaan Huygens that laid the foundations of pendulum clock theory and classical mechanics, including an early formulation of the laws of motion and the tautochrone problem.
-
D.
Analytical Engine
The Analytical Engine was Charles Babbage’s pioneering 19th-century design for a fully programmable mechanical computer, featuring concepts like a central processing unit and memory that anticipated modern computing.
-
E.
Astronomical Clock
The Astronomical Clock in Prague is a medieval timepiece and astronomical instrument famous for its intricate mechanical design and hourly animated figures, making it one of the city’s most iconic landmarks.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
early computing machine
ⓘ
mechanical calculator ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Rechen Uhr
ⓘ
Schickard’s calculating clock ⓘ
linked to:
Schickard calculating clock
|
| causeOfDestruction | fire ⓘ |
| computationalMethod |
digit-wise mechanical addition
ⓘ
mechanical carry propagation ⓘ |
| computes |
addition
ⓘ
subtraction ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Duchy of Württemberg ⓘ |
| designedFor | reducing computational labor ⓘ |
| designer | Wilhelm Schickard ⓘ |
| documentedIn | correspondence with Johannes Kepler ⓘ |
| era | Scientific Revolution ⓘ |
| field |
history of computing
ⓘ
mechanical engineering ⓘ |
| followedBy |
Leibniz calculator
ⓘ
Pascaline ⓘ |
| hasComponent |
carry mechanism wheels
ⓘ
display windows ⓘ input dials ⓘ |
| hasFeature |
Napier’s bones integration
ⓘ
automatic carry mechanism ⓘ gear-based mechanism ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
early attempt at automatic computation
ⓘ
one of the first known mechanical calculators ⓘ |
| inception |
1623
ⓘ
early 17th century ⓘ |
| influenced | later mechanical calculators ⓘ |
| intendedUser | Johannes Kepler ⓘ |
| languageOfOriginalName | German ⓘ |
| locatedInPresentDay | Germany ⓘ |
| material |
metal gears
ⓘ
wood ⓘ |
| notableAs | precursor of modern calculators ⓘ |
| numberOfDigits | 6 ⓘ |
| powerSource | manual hand operation ⓘ |
| precededBy | manual calculation methods ⓘ |
| reconstructed | 20th century ⓘ |
| reconstructionBasedOn |
Schickard’s letters
ⓘ
historical drawings ⓘ |
| status | original devices destroyed ⓘ |
| useCase | astronomical calculations ⓘ |
| uses |
decimal number system
ⓘ
rotating gears ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Schickard calculating clock Description of subject: The Schickard calculating clock was an early 17th-century mechanical calculator designed by Wilhelm Schickard, often regarded as one of the first known attempts to build an automatic computing machine.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Schickard calculating clock