Some of the simplest computing devices made and sold are counting aids. From ancient to early modern times, scribes performing calculations moved small stones or metal tokens along lines. More recently, mechanical counters have been widely used to count crowds and objects, and as parts of machines.
In the nineteenth century, several inventors patented mechanical counters. Patent models surviving in the Science and Mathematics Collections at the National Museum of American History suggest they had a range of uses. In 1854, Paul Stillman and Daniel Davies patented improved rotary measures, which were used to help count revolutions of steam engines. In 1876, Edward Wright built upon these improvements even further. In 1874, Alexander Atkinson patented a counting register to help track quantities of grain. Then, as the amount of leisure time available to Americans increased, three inventors around 1880 saw fit to patent counters to keep score in games.
By the turn of the century, mechanical revolution counters were incorporated into laboratory equipment, factories which used engines, distance measuring tools such as odometers, and in cash registers. Americans both manufactured them at home and imported them from abroad. Government offices bought and made counters to compile statistics, and employers used them to figure out the bills and coins they needed to meet payroll. Handheld counters are used to this day to count people entering and leaving buildings, events, and public transit.
References:
D. Baxandall, rev, J. Pugh, Calculating Machines and Instruments, London: Science Museum, 1975, p. 66.
Examples of counting tokens are in the Smithsonian's National Numismatics collection.