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Spanish inventor, known for inventing a calculating machine.
Ramón Verea is one of the fathers of modern computing machines. He studied in the University of Santiago de Compostela and later he went to Cuba where he worked as a teacher. In 1865 he moved to New York, where he invented the calculating machine, the first with a direct multiplication instead employ multiple rounds of crank. The U.S. patent office granted the patent on September 10, 1878, and the same year he won a medal of the World Exhibition of Inventions of Cuba.
The calculating machine of Verea could add, multiply and divide numbers to nine digits, supporting up to six numbers in the multiplier and fifteen in the product. The multiplication was solved using a direct method based on the one patented by E. D. Barbour in 1872. The basis of his machine was a ten-sided metal cylinder. Each side had a column of holes with ten different diameters and it worked in a similar way of the Jaquard loom. The device could solve complex multiplications in only 20 seconds, an astonishing rate for the time. Verea never tried to market his calculating machine; he only wanted to demostrate that Spanish people could make a step forward in technology, claiming for a greater investment in technology in Spain.
After a time he moved to Guatemala, exiled for his strong opposition to American Colonialism policy, and then to Buenos Aires. In that city he founded the magazine El Progreso, in which he wrote about new technologies. He died alone and poor in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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variant spelling:
Verea García, Ramón Silvestre; Verea García, Ramón; Verea, Ramón
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Curriculum vitae
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* 11.12.1833
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La Estrada, Pontevedra, Spain
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Ramón Silvestre Veréa was born on December 11th in 1833 in La Estrada, Potevedra (Spain).
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1865
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New York, USA
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He went to New York where some years later he will invent a mechanical calculator.
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1878
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Cuba
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He won a medal due to the invention of his machine in the World Exhibition of Inventions of Cuba.
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1878
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United States of America
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The patent of the calculating machine
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† 06.02.1899
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Buenos Aires, Argentina
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He died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on february 6th in 1899.
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