Early Computing Devices

What is a Computer?

A computer is an electronic machine that collects information stores it, processes it according to user instructures and then returns the result.

Description

People used sticks, stones and bones before computers were invented. More computing devices were produced as technology advanced and the human intellect improved over time

Examples of early-age computing devices:

  1. Abacus - A wooden rack with metal rods with beads attached to them. The abacus operator moves the beads according to certain guidelines to compete arithmetic operations.

  2. Napier's Bone - A manually operated calculating apparatus. For calculation, the instrument used 9 seperate ivory strips marked with numerals to multiply and divide. It was the first machine to calculate.

  3. Pascaline - Invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642. It was thought to be the first mechanical and automated calculator. Also, it was the first machine to calculate using the decimal point system.

  4. The Leibniz Wheel - In 1673, a German mathematician and philosopher named Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz improved on Pascal's invention to create this apparatus. It was a digital mechanical calculator because it used fluted drums instead of gears.

  5. The Difference Engine - In the early 1820s, Charles Babbage created the Difference Engine. It was a mechanical computer that took could do basic computations. It was a steam-powered machine that is used to solve numerical tables such as logarithmic tables.

  6. The Analytical Engine - A mechanical computer created in 1830 by Charles Babbage. It took input from punch cards and was capable of solving any mathematical problem and storing data in an indefinite memory

  7. The Tabulating Machine - A machine invented by Herman Hollerith in 1890. It was a punch card based mechanical tabulator that could compute statistics and record or sort data and information.

  8. The Differential Analyzer - It was the first electronic computer and was introduced in 1930 by Vannevar Bush. The machine is made out of vacuum tubes that switch electrical impulses in order to do calculations.

  9. Mark 1 - A computer constructed in 1944 as a collaboration between Harvard University and IBM.

    10. The Analytical Engine