History of Computers :: Technology Computers Essays

History of Computers One could say that the history of the computer started with the abacus, a wooden frame holding two wires with beads strung on them. The beads were moved around, and the abacus was used to solve arithmetic problems. Blaise Pascal built the first digital computer in 1642, which added numbers that were entered with dials. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz built a computer in 1694 that could add and multiply (Meyers). Thomas of Colmar (Charles Xavier Thomas) created the first mechanical calculator that added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided (Augarten 37). During this time, in Cambridge, England, Charles Babbage began designing an automatic mechanical calculating machine, called the difference machine. He started manufacturing it in 1823. It was supposed to be steam powered and fully automatic, capable of printing result tables, and run by an instruction program. He worked on it for the next ten years (Meyers). Herman Hollerith and James Powers, who worked for the US Census Bureau, were the first to successfully use punch cards in 1890. Information could be punched into the cards automatically, and they developed devices to read the information, so reading errors were reduced, work flow increased, and the punched cards could be used as easily accessible memory. International Business Machines (IBM), Remington, Burroughs, and other corporations developed better punched cards. These computers used electromechanical devices in which electrical power provided mechanical motion -- like turning the wheels of an adding machine. Such systems included features to: feed in a specified number of cards automatically, add, multiply, and sort feed out cards with punched results (Meyers). They were slow compared to today computers, only processing 50-220 cards per minute, each card only holding 80 characters. Punched cards were a big advancement in their day, providing greater memory st orage. Punched cards performed most of the world first business computing and much scientific computing work (Meyers). World War II created a great need for the military to have computer capacity; trajectory tables and other information were required for new weapons. John Eckert, John Mauchly, and their associates at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of University of Pennsylvania built a high-speed electronic computer, the ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) in 19 42.