In
1878, Ramon Verea, a Spaniard living in New York, invented
the first direct multiplying machine. By direct, I refer
to one turn of the crank for each figure in the multiplier
rather than the previously used repeated additions.
Verea asserted that he did not make the machine to sell
the patent or to put it to use, but simply to show that
it could be done and that a Spaniard could invent as well
as an American.
The machine did not receive much publicity.