Bollee's calculating machine. Calculating machine designed and built by the French inventor Leon Bollee (1870-1913). Bollee began working on his calculating machines from 1887, and developed three models: the Direct Multiplier, the Calculating Board, and the Arithmographe. They were the first to use direct mechanical multiplication, as opposed to multiplication by continued addition. This model is similar to a design patented in Germany in 1895. Slides or pegs would be set to the numbers (0-9) on the display, and the multiplication mechanism cranked to produce the answer. One of Bollee's calculating machines contained over 3000 moving parts.