Per Georg Scheutz

Pehr Georg Scheutz (1785 to 1873) was a Swedish lawyer, translator and inventor, now best known for his pioneering work in computer technology. He studied law at Lund University, graduating in 1805, and translated works of William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott before turning to liberal politics and mechanical engineering. With his son Edvard he built the Scheutzian calculation engine, invented in 1837 and finalized in 1843 and based on Charles Babbage's difference engine. An improved model of 1853, about the size of a piano, was shown at the Paris World's Fair in 1855 and sold in 1856 to the Dudley Observatory in Albany, and the British government ordered another in 1857, built in 1859. The machines were used for creating logarithmic tables. He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1856.