During the baroque era there was neither a scientific nor a commercial need for calculating machines. They were collected by kings and potentates and kept in cabinets, and were admired and marvelled at because they, like androids, were able to perform human feats mechanically.Series production of mechanical calculating machines did not commence until the middle of the 19th century.

The exhibition spans an immense period of time: from the beginnings of digits and number systems in ancient Mesopotamia 6000 years ago, to the reckoning boards of classical antiquity and middle ages, and on to the first mechanical calculating machines in the 17th century that were concieved by such famous mathematicians as Leibniz, Pascal, Schickard, Poleni and Stanhope.