A Paris court blocks the auction of the earliest-known calculator.
20 November 2025
One of the world's first calculating machines will not go to auction as scheduled after a Paris court provisionally blocked La Pascaline, a 400-year-old calculating machine, from being exported from France.
Auction house Christie's confirmed it will not proceed with bidding for the machine, developed by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642.
Auction house Christie's confirmed it will not proceed with bidding for the machine, developed by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642.