Babbage's Difference Engine did contribute to one highly successful venture. It inspired a Swedish printer, George Scheutz to build his own engine to calculate differences and print tables. He and his son Edward accomplished this in 1843. They built two machines. One went to the Dudley Observatory at Albany, New York. The other to the Register General at Somerset House in England. These two machines are at the Smithsonian and the Science Museums. IBM has a replica in its collection.

Returning to the branch in the road that led to commercial calculators: One of the beginnings of commercial calculators coincides with the typewriter and derives its concept from keyboard musical instruments. Considerable ingenuity was required to make this principle, the the keydriven machine, work effectively.