Short Computer History

Origins: The abacus

The "abacus" was invented in the year 700; it was in use for a long time, and still is in some countries.

Then came the logarithm

The invention of the logarithm is generally credited to the Scotsman John Napier (1550-1617). In 1614, he showed that multiplication and division could be performed using a series of additions. This discovery led, in 1620, to the invention of the slide rule.

However, the true father of logarithm theory is Mohamed Ybn Moussa Al-Khawarezmi, an Arab scholar from the Persian town of Khawarezm. This scholar also developed algebra, a term which comes from the Arabic "Al-Jabr", meaning compensation, with the implication being "looking for the unknown variable X in order to compensate by balancing the results of the calculations."

The first calculating machines

In 1623, William Schickard invented the first mechanical calculating machine.

In 1642, Blaise Pascal created the arithmetic machine (called the Pascaline), a machine that could add and subtract, intended to help his father, a tax collector. 

In 1673, Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz added multiplication and division to the Pascaline. 

In 1834, Charles Babbage invented the difference engine, which could evaluate functions. 

However, once he learned that a weaving machine (called a Jacquard loom) was programmed with perforated cards, he started building a calculating machine that could take advantage of this revolutionary idea.

In 1820, the first four-function mechanical calculators debuted. They could:

• add

• subtract

• multiply

• divide

By 1885, they were being built with keyboards for entering data. Electrical motors quickly supplanted cranks.

Programmable computers

In 1938, Konrad Zuse invented a computer based around electromechanical relays: The Z3. This computer was the first to use binary instead of decimals 

In 1937, Howard Aiken developed a programmable computer 17 metres long and 2.5 metres high, which could calculate 5...