The History of Computers   The earliest calculating device was the abacus, having been used for over 5000 years in the Orient

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The History of Computers

 

The earliest calculating device was the abacus, having been used for over 5000 years in the Orient.

 

A manuscript was discovered of Leonardo DaVinci’s (1452-1519) design for a calculator, but it is unknown whether he ever made a model or whether later inventors knew about this design.

 

John Napier (1559-1617) invented logarithms and also a calculating device called Napier’s bones.

 

Edmund Gunter invented the slide rule in 1620.

 

Blaise Pascal invented the first mechanical digital calculator with a carry function in 1642. This device was called La Pascaline.

 

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz built a calculator that could perform all four functions (add, subtract, multiply, divide) in 1673

 

George Boole (1815-1864) was the principle developer of the algebra of logic, today called Boolean logic.

 

Joseph Jacquard introduced the Jacquard Loom in 1804 which used punched cards to improve the weaving process.

 

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was called the father of computing. He invented the difference engine and the analytical engine, which was the first machine with a recognizable input, processing, output, and storage cycle.

 

Ada Lovelace (1816-1852) was known as the first computer programmer, and worked with Babbage on his analytical engine.

 

D. D. Parmalee patented a key-driven adding machine in 1850.

 

Dorr E. Felt invented in 1885 a multiple-order key-driven machine known as The Comptometer which dominated the market for the next 15 years.

 

James Ritty invented the first cash register in 1878. He sold his business to Jacob Eckert who organized the National Manufacturing Company and added the cash drawer and the bell to the register. The next owner of the business was John Patterson who changed the name to the National Cash Register Company.

 

William Burroughs invented a machine in 1886 that would record entries on paper and add them progressively with a running total so that pressing a special key would provide an instant printout of the total at any time. His company became Burroughs Corporation.

 

Herman Hollerith designed a machine to tabulate the 1890 census. This machine used punched cards driven by electrical, rather than mechanical power. In 1896 he organized the Tabulating Machine Company which merged with three other companies in 1911 to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company which reorganized in 1933 as IBM.

 

Howard Aiken designed an electromechanical computer that came to the attention of Thomas Watson (IBM) and was presented as the Mark I in 1944. The Mark II, released in 1947, was used by the US Navy to solve problems in the ballistics of guided missiles and supersonic aerodynamics, and was an all-electrical calculator.

 

John Atanasoff designed the ABC (Atanasoff and Berry Computer) in 1942, which was the first digital computer that worked electronically. This computer used vacuum tubes for digital computation.

 

John Mauchly and Presper Eckert invented an electronic computer that could calculate firing tables for the ballistics of missiles. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was completed in 1947 – two months after the war ended. The ENIAC was the prototype of most modern computers. It embodied almost all of the components and concepts that became standard in later machines.

 

The EDVAC (Electrical Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) was completed in 1950 and utilized what John von Neumann called the first program concept.

 

In 1946, Eckert and Mauchly began work on the UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) which was released in 1951 as the first commercially feasible computer that was self-checking and able to handle both numbers and descriptive data. It marked the first time a computer had been built for business applications rather than for military, scientific, or engineering use.