Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz (1646-1716) was born in Leipzig, Germany, and traveled to Paris where he studied the mathematical works of Descartes and Pascal. Von Leibniz was very impressed with the calculating machine developed by Pascal (1646).

Von Leibniz improved upon Pascal's device. In 1671, he invented a machine to perform multiplication, division and extraction of square roots. His device, called the "Leibniz Wheel" was a hand-cranked calculator that could only handle simple arithmetical operations and never became widely used. Leibniz also invented a device called "Stepped-Reckoner" which was a sophisticated calculating device, but never managed to fully perfect it.