Monroe Calculator

The first modern commercial calculator, the Monroe Calculator was introduced more than 100 years ago. This innovative tool could perform calculations on large sets of data, enabling scientists to compute statistics faster than ever before. A hand crank set the machine to add or subtract, and multiple digits could be input at a time. Today, the Monroe Calculator’s descendants are computers that analyze much larger data sets, allowing public health officials to track the spread of disease and predict the rate of infection more quickly, precisely and effectively.