A history of Computers
The Early Years
This history of computers is given as a guide for all those interested in Computers. I hope that it will be of assistance to all who read it. The Computer has had a colorful past. The computer's development had its genesis in biblical times. The computer evolved over time as the needs of man dictated. Since ancient time, man has been trying to find a solution to solving the mathematical problems that confronted them. The abacus was one of the first counting 'machines' adapted by man and is still being used today,in it's modern form, in eastern countries. The first computer were people. It was persons hired to make calculations for companies who needed this kind of service. Women were the ones mainly hired to do these calculations or computations.(therefore the term computer) The 'computor' was a job title. since they were computing figures. Doing this every day was bound to get monotonous and was plagued by errors.The search was on to find a mechanical device to do this work. A Scotsman name John Napier took up the challenge and invented the logarithms. This was a tables that allowed multiplication to be done by adding. The logarithms tables used in schools today, are credited to him. He also put these tables on ivory. This was called Napier Bones. This led to the slide rule being invented in 1632 and was used for all kinds of calculations.. This was being use until the early eighty s', and is still around today. The first gear driven calculator,was invented by a German professor named Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. He died soon after of the bubonic plague.
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A little later in 1642, Blaise Pascal developed the Pascal Pascaline as an aid to his father who was a tax collector. It was inaccurate at best and quite expensive.It died a natural death. However, the gears used in odometers up to recent times, were of the type invented. Pascal went on to invent several other items that are still used today, ie the the hydraulic press, and the syringe. He is also credited with inventing the hydraulic press. A power loom was invented In 1801 by the Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard to weave cloth. This apparatus used punch cards which were 'read' resulting in designs being weaved on fabric using similar patterns as required. These punch cards in its modern form are still used today. ie. (US presidential elections debacle of 2000 in Florida.). Following Jacquard came Charles Babbage in 1822. He was an English mathematician who used Jacquard's invention of the punch card to invent the Analytic Machine. He was the one who determined that the punch card can be used to give results based on abstract ideas such as problems.He also determined that information could be stored on these cards as a means of filing. Babbage became involved with a young woman,Ada Byron, the daughter of a famous poet Lord Byron.. Correspondence over the years of between the two resulted in Ada keeping copious notes, wherein she detailed sequences of instructions she had prepared for the Analytic Engine. She is credited with writing programs for the machine, thus being the first 'programmer'. Charles Babbage, in an earlier experiment with the British Government failed to deliver on his first adventure, the 'Difference Engine', which they had funded, as a result he was unable to get funding and the 'Analytic machine' was never built. Babbage went on to invent other items which are still in use today. The next major event in the evolution of the computer occurred in the US. in the person of Herman Hollerith. He invented the Hollerith Desk which used punch cards invented by Jacquard. It read these cards using the invention of Pascal and his gears This gentleman used the technique proposed by Babbage although he was unaware of it. He developed it so that the cards could be read/write instead of read only as the Jaquard card was. His technique was successful and he went on to build the Tabulating Machine Company. After several buy outs, this company eventually came to be known as the International Business Machines known as IBM. | ||
