HISTORY OF COMPUTER:
Until the development
of the first generation computers based on vacuum tubes, there had been several
developments in the computing technology related to the mechanical computing
devices. The key developments that took place till the first computer was
developed are as follows:
Calculating Machines:
ABACUS
was the first mechanical calculating device for counting of large numbers. The
word ABACUS means calculating board. It consists of bars in horizontal
positions on which sets of beads are inserted. The horizontal bars have10 beads
each, representing units, tens, hundreds, etc.
Fig: Abacus
Napier’s Bones was a mechanical
device built for the purpose of multiplication in 1617 by an English
mathematician John Napier.
Slide Rule was developed by an
English mathematician Edmund Gunter in the 16thcentury. Using the
slide rule, one could perform operations like addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division. It was used extensively till late 1970s.
Fig: Slide Rule
Pascal’s Adding and
Subtraction Machine was
developed by Blaise Pascal. It could add and subtract. The machine consisted of
wheels, gears and cylinders.
Leibniz’s
Multiplication and Dividing Machine was a mechanical device that could both
multiply and divide. The German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz
built it around 1673.
Punch Card System was developed by
Jacquard to control the power loom in 1801. He invented the punched card reader
that could recognize the presence of hole in the punched card as binary one and
the absence of the hole as binary zero. The 0s and 1s are the basis of the modern
digital computer.
Fig: Punched Card
Babbage’s Analytical
Engine:
An English man Charles Babbage built a mechanical machine to do complex
mathematical calculations, in the year 1823. The machine was called as Difference Engine. Later, Charles Babbage
and Lady Ada Lovelace developed a general-purpose calculating machine, the Analytical Engine. Charles Babbage is
also called the father of computer.
Hollerith’s Punched
Card Tabulating Machine was invented by Herman Hollerith. The machine
could read the information from a punched card and process it electronically.
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