Luigi Torchi was an Italian inventor. He invented the first direct multiplication machine in 1834.[1] This was also the second key-driven machine in the world, following that of James White in 1822.[2]
Very little is known about the inventor and the machine. It is only known that he was a carpenter; his machine was awarded a gold metal from the Imperial-regio istituto lombardo di scienze, lettere e arti in Milan in 1834. A document of the award provides the known details of the machine, while a second document shows a drawing of the machine itself. However, no detailed documents about how it worked are known to exist.
The machine was exhibited in Brera between 1834 and 1837; it was later found by Giovanni Schiaparelli in bad condition. Subsequently, no further information about the machine exists.
Silvio Hénin, Two Early Italian Key-Driven Calculators, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 32, no. 1, 2010, pp. 34–43.
Silvio Hénin, Early Italian computing machines and their inventors. Reflections on the History of Computing. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2012. 204–230.
