Discovery of a lost factoring machine (Q1908699)

The French brothers Pierre and Eugène Olivier Carissan constructed mechanical number sieves used for integer factorization and testing for primes. The authors set the stage by reviewing the history and principles of such machines. The first automatic device appears to have been proposed by Frederick William Lawrence in 1896 and early builders included André Gérardin and Maurice Kraitchik. E. O. Carissan developed what he called a machine à congruences that was demonstrated at the Exposition Publique de Machines à Calculer in Paris in 1920. By combining the French Telecom database for subscribers named Carissan the authors eventually found not only the original machine (since donated to the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris) but also made contact with descendants who provided photographs and much personal information about the inventor.