history of computers

EARLY HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

The computers has affected people all over the world,changing and improving their lives in many ways.where did all this begin and how did the computers get its present form?the history of computers shows us that there there where many people who have been involved in this process.to understand how the computer became this marvelous multitasking machine,we shall go way back into the history when man was creating devices to count.

let us have a quick look at the early counting machines developed by man.

do you know ?

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               the numbers 0 to 9 are called digits.but 

               the word digit actually refers to a finger 

               or toe.the first tools used by man to count 

               were his own fingers.    

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Early counting devices

• Ancient people used their fingers,stones and sticks for counting or made scratches on a wall to keep count of their animals.
• Sometimes they even tied knots in a rope to record information 

Abacus(3000BC) 

 

• Early man's need to count possessions,mark days and nights,keep count of grazing cattle,etc.,led to the invention of the abacus(abundant,beads,addition and calculation utility system).
• The abacus has a wooden  frame divided into two parts by a horizontal bar.
• These parts have vertical wires with sliding beads on theme.these beads are used for counting and calculating.

do you know ?

            

Napier's bones(1617)

• John Napier,a Scottish mathematician,invented a calculating machine made of a set of rods carved from ivory.it was called Napier's bones.
• Each rod had four faces with numbers painted on them.
• These rods were used to do multiplication and division.

Pascaline(1642)

• Blaise pascal,a french mathematician,invented a calculating machine in 1642,called pascaline.
• the pascaline was the first calculating device that used gears,a set of toothed wheels connected to each other.
• the pascaline could only add and subtract numbers.

 Leibniz calculator

gottfried Von Leibniz,a German mathematician,built a mechanical calculator which could do addition,subtraction,multiplication and division.

Punched cards(1801)

• Joseph Marie Jacquard,a French weaver,invented a way of automatically controlling the threads on a silk loom. This loom was known as Jacquard's loom.
• Jacquard's loom could automatically read the designs from punched cards and weave accordingly. This revolutionized the weaving industry. 

Charles Babbage 一difference engine and analytical engine

In 1822,British mathematician Charles Babbage developed a working model of a mechanical computer called the difference engine.it was powered by steam.

it stored programs to perform calculation and print the results automatically.

in 1837, he proposed a design for the first mechanical computer known as the analytical engine.the analytical engine could do complicated calculations and store the results at each stage.since this machine laid the basis for modern computers, Charles Babbage is also known as the father of computers. 

Tabulating machine(1880)

• Herman Hollerith, an American statistician, invented the Tabulating Machine that followed the IPO cycle.
• In this machine, input was in the form of punched cards.

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               lady Ada Lovelace is known as the first 
               programmer in computer history.she was
               the first to introduce the concept of 
               programming in 1842, i.e, how a machine 
               could be made to follow a series 
               of instructions.

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mark 1 (1944) 

Howard Aiken, an engineer with IBM, developed the first electromechanical computers known as mark 1.this was a general-purpose computer which ran on electricity.it was as big a a hall, 8 feet high and 50 feet long.

ENIAC(1946)

• In 1946, the first all-electronic computer, the electronic numerical integrator and computer(ENIAC),was invented by John p eckert and john w mauchly.
• The ENIAC cost millions of dollars, occupied a whole room and could do a hundred calculations in a second.

ENIAC

The present computer took its shape gradually from these early computers.