The reproductions of Pierre Charrier
The explanations on the operation of the pascaline which are given in these pages are sometimes illustrated by movies. These movies are done on pascaline reproductions made by Pierre Charrier. I am grateful to him and with the Lecoq museum of Clermont-Ferrand who gave me the possibility of carrying out the films which illustrate operation of the pascaline
In 1990 when, contacted by Yves Serra, Pierre Charrier made the project to build a copy of the pascaline in a position to function. In 1992 a first model is produced.
From 1992 to 1998, the work (which he evaluates to about 2000 hours) leads to the construction of the first functional pascaline. This work is made known and :
- 2 other machines are built for private collections in 2001.
- In 2004 the calculators 3 and 4 are manufactured for private collectors like another specimen for the Lecoq museum of Clermont-Ferrand.
- In 2005.2 others are manufactured.
- after that ????
Photos of the reproduction of Pierre Charrier :
The photo below illustrates the system of transmission between the input and the graduated drums of the display.
The input of a figure results in a rotation of a sproked dial which is interdependent of the gears located just underneath. This rotation is transmitted to a set of three other interdependent gears whose axis are turned by 90° relative to the first one.
From the left to the right ;
- The first gear is attached with the input spokes wheel (on the left with the vertical axis).
- The second can just take ten angular positions because of the catch bar above it (set of three gears at the bottom with an horizontal axis). These angular positions correspond to the digits of the numeral wheel appearing in the display windows.
- The third one (smallest) transmits the movement to the graduated drum.
Some photos of the Pierre Charrier reproduction :