Martin Wiberg

Inventor of a machine that could print logarithmic tables, Wiberg is known as a computer pioneer for his 1875 invention of a device the size of a sewing machine. The tables were subsequently published in English, French, and German.

The device was investigated by the French Academy of Science, which also wrote an extensive report on it. It was inspired by the similar work done by Per Georg Scheutz and has similarities with Charles Babbage's difference engine. (Scheutz's machine was based on the difference engine.) The device is preserved at Tekniska museet (The Technical Museum) of Sweden in Stockholm.

Wiberg was born in Viby, Scania, Sweden, enrolled at Lund University in 1845, and became a Doctor of Philosophy in 1850. He failed to sell his machine, and also failed to sell the output tables due to their poor appearance. Apart from this invention, he invented numerous other devices and gadgets, among these a cream separator and a pulse jet engine. None of these were commercially successful.