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History of the development of computers
History of the development of computers
History of the development of computers
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The History of Computers
Thousands of years ago calculations were done using people’s fingers and pebbles that were found just lying around. Technology has transformed so much that today the most complicated computations are done within seconds. Human dependency on computers is increasing everyday. Just think how hard it would be to live a week without a computer. We owe the advancements of computers and other such electronic devices to the intelligence of men of the past.
The history of the computer dates back all the way to the prehistoric times. The first step towards the development of the computer, the abacus, was developed in Babylonia in 500 B.C. and functioned as a simple counting tool. It was not until thousands of years later that the first calculator was produced. In 1623, the first mechanical calculator was invented by Wilhelm Schikard, the “Calculating Clock,” as it was often referred to as, “performed it’s operations by wheels, which worked similar to a car’s odometer” (Evolution, 1). Still, there had not yet been anything invented that could even be characterized as a computer. Finally, in 1625 the slide rule was created becoming “the first analog computer of the modern ages” (Evolution, 1). One of the biggest breakthroughs came from by Blaise Pascal in 1642, who invented a mechanical calculator whose main function was adding and subtracting numbers. Years later, Gottfried Leibnez improved Pascal’s model by allowing it to also perform such operations as multiplying, dividing, taking the square root.
Technology continued to prosper in the computer world into the nineteenth century. A major figure during this time is Charles Babbage, designed the idea of the Difference Engine in the year 1820. It was a calculating machine designed to tabulate the results of mathematical functions (Evans, 38). Babbage, however, never completed this invention because he came up with a newer creation in which he named the Analytical Engine. This computer was expected to solve “any mathematical problem” (Triumph, 2). It relied on the punch card input. The machine was never actually finished by Babbage, and today Herman Hollerith has been credited with the fabrication of the punch card tabulating machine.
People have been in awe of computers since they were first invented. At first scientist said that computers would only be for government usage only. “Then when the scientists saw the potential computers had, scientist then predicted that by 1990 computers may one day invade the home of just about ever citizen in the world” (“History” Internet), the scientists were slightly wrong, because by 1990 computers were just beginning to catch on. Then a few years later when scientists when to major corporations to get help with a special project, the corporations said no, because computers would just be a fad and they wouldn’t make much money off of it. “By definition Abacus is the first computer (the proper definition of a computer is one who or that which computes) ever invented” (Internet).
In 500 B.C. the abacus was first used by the Babylonians as an aid to simple arithmetic. In 1623 Wihelm Schickard (1592 - 1635) invented a "Calculating Clock". This mechanical machine could add and subtract up to 6 digit numbers, and warned of an overflow by ringing a bell. J. H. Mueller comes up with the idea of the "difference engine", in 1786. This calculator could tabulate values of a polynomial. Muellers attempt to raise funds fails and the project was forgotten. Scheutz and his son Edward produced a 3rd order difference engine with a printer in 1843 and their government agreed to fund their next project.
The “Blaise Pascaline,” as referred to in [3] would be considered today as an early version of a calculator. This project derived in part from helping out his father who had been promoted as a tax clerk, a job which required him to perform long calculations at work. Only one other mechanical device was known to add up figures before the Pascaline and that was known as the Schickard's calculating clock, created by German professor Wilhelm Schickard. Unlike Schickard device, Pascal’s calculator had a larger number of production and use despite the somewhat unreliability of the device. The device consisted of a wheel with eight movable parts for dialing and each part corresponding to a particular digit in a number. It worked by using gears and pins to add integers; addends were entered by hand and carriers from one column to the next were broadcast internally by falling weights lifted and dropped by the pins attached to the gears. It could even be manipulated to subtract, multiply and divide if one knew their way around the Pascaline. Subtraction was done by adding the nines complement version of the number being subtracted. Multiplication; accomplished by repeating additions and division performed by repeating subtractions. Balise Pascals went on to inspire directly inspired further work on calculating machines by other inventors such as Gottfried Leibniz and Samuel
Calculators, computers, appliances, and many more things were created to help us. “The tools we use to think change the way in which we think” (Turkle). This point that Sherry Turkle made in her article and it is true, in a way. Computers do things for us and to us, that is also true. Some people like to blame technology for a lot of things and they could be in the right or in the wrong for it. “Technology does not determine change, but it encourages us to take certain directions” (Turkle). Calculators, for example, are only a tool and people will blame them when the answer they get is wrong. They are wrong though, since calculators are only a tool, it means that they are the ones that messed up. If they had done it by hand, there is a 99% chance that they would have done it wrong
Computer engineering started about 5,000 years ago in China when they invented the abacus. The abacus is a manual calculator in which you move beads back and forth on rods to add or subtract. Other inventors of simple computers include Blaise Pascal who came up with the arithmetic machine for his father’s work. Also Charles Babbage produced the Analytical Engine, which combined math calculations from one problem and applied it to solve other complex problems. The Analytical Engine is similar to today’s computers.
"Technology is like fish. The longer it stays on the shelf, the less desirable it becomes." (1) Since the dawn of computers, there has always been a want for a faster, better technology. These needs can be provided for quickly, but become obsolete even quicker. In 1981, the first "true portable computer", the Osborne 1 was introduced by the Osborne Computer Corporation. (2) This computer revolutionized the way that computers were used and introduced a brand new working opportunity.
We have the microprocessor to thank for all of our consumer electronic devices, because without them, our devices would be much larger. Microprocessors are the feat of generations of research and development. Microprocessors were invented in 1972 by Intel Corporation and have made it so that computers could shrink to the sizes we know today. Before, computers took a room because the transistors or vacuum tubes were individual components. Microprocessors unified the technology on one chip while reducing the costs. Microprocessor technology has been the most important revolution in the computer industry in the past forty years, as microprocessors have allowed our consumer electronics to exist.
The First Generation of Computers The first generation of computers, beginning around the end of World War 2, and continuing until around the year 1957, included computers that used vacuum tubes, drum memories, and programming in machine code. Computers at that time where mammoth machines that did not have the power our present day desktop microcomputers. In 1950, the first real-time, interactive computer was completed by a design team at MIT. The "Whirlwind Computer," as it was called, was a revamped U.S. Navy project for developing an aircraft simulator.
Ada Lovelace was the daughter of famous poet at the time, Lord George Gordon Byron, and mother Anne Isabelle Milbanke, known as “the princess of parallelograms,” a mathematician. A few weeks after Ada Lovelace was born, her parents split. Her father left England and never returned. Women received inferior education that that of a man, but Isabelle Milbanke was more than able to give her daughter a superior education where she focused more on mathematics and science (Bellis). When Ada was 17, she was introduced to Mary Somerville, a Scottish astronomer and mathematician who’s party she heard Charles Babbage’s idea of the Analytic Engine, a new calculating engine (Toole). Charles Babbage, known as the father of computer invented the different calculators. Babbage became a mentor to Ada and helped her study advance math along with Augustus de Morgan, who was a professor at the University of London (Ada Lovelace Biography Mathematician, Computer Programmer (1815–1852)). In 1842, Charles Babbage presented in a seminar in Turin, his new developments on a new engine. Menabrea, an Italian, wrote a summary article of Babbage’s developments and published the article i...
The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.
Since the beginning of time, humans have thought and made many inventions. Repeatedly the newer one is better than the older. Our minds have created many remarkable things, however the best invention we ever created is the computer. computers are constantly growing and becoming better every day. Every day computers are capable of doing new things. Even though computers have helped us a lot in our daily lives, many jobs have been lost because of it, now the computer can do all of the things a man can do in seconds! Everything in the world relies on computers and if a universal threat happens in which all computers just malfunction then we are doomed. Computers need to be programmed to be able to work or else it would just be a useless chunk of metal. And we humans need tools to be able to live; we program the computer and it could do a lot of necessary functions that have to be done. It is like a mutual effect between us and he computer (s01821169 1).
It all started with the creation of The Abacus which is calculating device is invented 5 millennium in Asia and which is still being used until today, it’s known as the first computer. This device allows users to make calculations using sliding beads arranged in a rack form. Only after about 1200 years, next adv...
Nowadays you don’t have to look very far to see just how far the benefits of computers has reached. Most of all modern machinery is a form of computer nowadays and is only getting more complex as evidenced by such advanced pieces of devices such as smartphones. However, everything has to start from somewhere and none of these advances in science would be possible without the bedrock of mathematical geniuses who helped pave the way for this innovation in technology.
Even in our everyday life we can see how past knowledge helps to improve the future's outcome. Whether it is improvement of policies, electronics or automobiles improvement is always occurring. The computer is one such item which has come a long way. It would taking up entire rooms, run very slowly, and create tremendous amounts of heat. As improvement began they became smaller, faster and more energy efficient. Today they are very small, and run at tremendously high speeds while producing very little heat. Each improvement in the computers history could not have been made without knowledge of its predecessor's blueprints. Without this knowledge improvement would be impossible, always building the same exact computers with the same problems and never realizing it could have been built in a different way perhaps with better materials or a different more efficient computer language.
Known as the “father of computing”, Charles Babbage has inspired many scientists and engineers with his wonderful inventions. His goal was to create a machine that would reduce the possibility of human error in making mathematical calculations. In addition to inventing an early form of the calculator, Babbage also invented the cowcatcher and the first speedometer for trains. Babbage said, “At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labor becomes abridged.” This could possibly mean that he was on his quest for knowledge to help reduce the amount of human labor needed in daily processes. Babbage could only have achieved those great feats because of the fine education he received during his childhood.