who came up with the type of calculator known as 'the step reckoner'
Stepped reckoner The step reckoner (or stepped reckoner) was a digital mechanical calculator invented by the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz around 1672 and completed in 1694.[1] The name comes from the translation of the German term for its operating mechanism, Staffelwalze, meaning 'stepped drum'. It was the first calculator that could perform all four arithmetic operations.[2]
Approximations of π The English amateur mathematician William Shanks, a man of independent means, spent over 20 years calculating π to 707 decimal places. This was accomplished in 1873, with the first 527 places correct. He would calculate new digits all morning and would then spend all afternoon checking his morning's work. This was the longest expansion of π until the advent of the electronic digital computer three-quarters of a century later.