- Computers
- Origins
- 1800s onwards
- Before the 20^th century
- Mindmap
- Anki Deck
- What was the earliest known computer?
- What was the Astrolabe?
- What was the Slide Rule?
- What were Clocks mostly used before thet 1800s?
- Who was Charles Babbage?
- What was the Difference Engine?
- What was the Analytical Engine?
- Who was Ada Lovelace?
- Which machine did Ada Lovelace program for?
- Who was Herman Hollerith?
Computers
Probably humanity’s greatest invention. Life blood of this world. Has transfromed every aspect of our lives. Simple machines that perform complex actions through many layers of abstraction. Electronic computers are new but the need for computation is not. Computers make things that were previously laborious to calculate much faster, easier, and often more calculate. It also lowered the barrier to entry, and amplified our mental abilities. Charles Babbage, an early computer pioneer, said, “At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged.” None of the invented tools such as the Abacus, Astrolable, Slide Rule and Clocks were called computers. The earliest documented use of the word, ‘computer’ is from 1613, in a book by Richard Braithwait, “I have read the truest computer of times, and the best arithmetician that ever breathed, and he reduceth thy days into a short number”. Computer was a person, with or without machines in the olden days.
Origins
Abacus
Earliest computer. Invented in Mesopotamia circa. 2500BCE. Hand-operated calculator using beads counting in decimal number format. Stores the current state of computation like hard drives. Stores large numbers very well instead of doing it in one’s head. For addition and subtration.
Astrolabe
Enabled ships to calculate their latitude at sea
Slide Rule
Assisting with multiplication & division.
Clocks
Used to calculate sunrise, tides, positions of celestial bodies & time
1800s onwards
Step Reckoner
The shift from a computer being a person to a device was in the late 1800s, when the shift was to devices. For example, Step Reckoner, who said, “… it is beneath the dignity of excellent me to waste their time in calculation when any peasant could do the work just as accurately with the aid of a machine.” Built by German Polymath Gottfried Leibnz in 1694. Functioned like the car odometer. Had a series of gears that turned functioning similar to an Abacus but in an automated way. First machine to do multiplication, division, addition and subtration. Used for centuries. It could take days to get a calculation, and it was very expensive, and inaccessible to most of the population
Before the 20^th century
Most people experienced computing through pre-computed tables assembled by “human computers”. This tables were in books, which could be referenced to for things like square root, logarithms etc. Militaries used computers on battlefields. They used Range Tables. Computers were used in the sciences and engineering but rarely in business, government and domestic life. Businesses started using computers having seen its potential to boost profits by improving labour and data intensive tasks, like accounting, insurance appraisals, and inventory management.
Charles Babbage
Considered to be the father of computing. Charles Babbage acknowledged the problem of using Range Table and other pre-computed tables in 1822 to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled: “Not on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables.”
Difference Engine
Charles Babbage proposed this mechanical device. It was more complex and could approximate polynomials, which describe the relationships between several variables - like range and air pressure, or to approximate logarithmic and trigonometric functions, which are hard to calculate by hand. The project of assembling the device was abandoned in 1823, but in 1991 historians finished constructing a working Difference Engine based on Babbage’s drawings, and writings.
Analytical Engine
Imagined by Charles Babbage during construction of the Difference Engine. Unlike other mechanical devices before it, the Analytical Engine was a general purpose computer, which had a primitive printer, could run operations in sequence etc. It was never fully constructed being ahead of its time like the Difference Engine. The device inspired the first generation of computer scientists.
Ada Lovelace
English mathematician who wrote hypothetical programs for the Analytical Engine. She said, " a new, a vast, and a powerful language is developed for the future use of analysis." She is considered the world’s first programmer.
Herman Hollerith
The United States of America government faced a serious problem for its 1890 census that demanded efficiency that could only be provided by computers. Herman Hollerith was tasked by the Census Bureau to fix this problem since he had built a tabulating machine. This machine was electro-mechanical. It used punch cards, which were paper cards with a grid of locations that could be punched out to represent data. The machine was roughly 10x faster than manual tabulations, and the Censuc was completed in just two and a half years - saving the Census Bureau millions of dollars. He founded The Tabulating Machine Company, which later merged with other machine makers in 1924 to become The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). The electro-mechanical business machines were a huge success, transforming commerce and government.
Mindmap
Anki Deck
What was the earliest known computer?
Answer
- Abacus
- Earliest computer invented in Mesopotamia circa. 2500BCE
- Hand-operated calculator
What was the Astrolabe?
Answer
A machine which enabled ships to calculate their latitude at sea
What was the Slide Rule?
Answer
A machine for assisting with multiplication & division
What were Clocks mostly used before thet 1800s?
Answer
For calculating sunrise, tides, positions of celestial bodies & time
What was the Step Reckoner and what was it used for?
Answer
A machine built by German Polymath Gottfried Leibnz in 1694. Functioned like the car odometer. It was the first machine to do multiplication, division, addition and subtration.
Who was Charles Babbage?
Answer
Considered to be the father of computing. Created the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine.
What was the Difference Engine?
Answer
A machine invented by Charles Babbage. For more complex operations e.g. approximating polynomials logarithmic, and trigonometric functions.
What was the Analytical Engine?
Answer
A general purpose computer invented by Charles Babbage. Functions included a primitive printer, and could run operations in sequence.
Who was Ada Lovelace?
Answer
Considered to be the first programmer
Which machine did Ada Lovelace program for?
Answer
Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine
Who was Herman Hollerith?
Answer
An American who invented an electro-mechanical tabulating using punch cards for USA 1890 census. Founded IBM in 1924