Abraham Stern (inventor)

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Antoni Blank: Portrait of Abraham Stern , 1823

Abraham Stern (* between 1762 and 1769 in Hrubieszów ; † February 3, 1842 in Warsaw ) was a Polish watchmaker , self-taught mathematician and inventor of calculating machines. He is the great-great-grandfather of the poet Antoni Słonimski .

Abraham Stern began as an apprentice with a watchmaker in Hrubieszów , but soon he began to build calculating machines out of gears . Starting in 1810, he built a number of calculating machines that performed the four basic arithmetic operations and could also extract square roots. Stanisław Staszic , priest and representative of the Polish Enlightenment , brought Stern to Warsaw and made it possible for him to develop further inventions, such as the geodetic measuring triangle.

Thanks to Staszic, Stern was able to demonstrate his inventions on April 30, 1817 at a meeting of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Science . One of his calculating machines was equipped with a clock drive and worked independently. On February 4, 1821, Abraham Stern was elected a member of this society.

Stern's youngest daughter, Sara, married Chaim Zelig Słonimski in 1842 , father of the doctor Stanisław Słonimski and grandfather of the poet Antoni Słonimski.

Stern was a Jew and held the post of rector of the Warsaw Rabbinical School from 1826 to 1835 . He was buried in the Bródno Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw.

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personal data
SURNAME Star, Abraham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish watchmaker, self-taught mathematician and inventor of calculating machines
DATE OF BIRTH between 1762 and 1769
PLACE OF BIRTH Hrubieszów
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1842
Place of death Warsaw