Glenn G. Fabia
Department of Computer Science
Ateneo de Naga University
A typical computer operation back when computers were people.
Counting Tables
History of Computers
2
A Modern Day Abacus
(Oldest surviving, 300 B.C)
Note how the abacus is really just a representation of the human fingers: the 5 lower rings on each rod represent the 5 fingers and the
2 upper rings represent the 2 hands.
History of Computers
3
Napier's Bones
In 1617 John Napier invented logarithms, which are a technology that allows multiplication to be performed via addition. History of Computers
4
Slide Rule
Napier's invention led directly to the slide rule, first built in England in
1632 and still in use in the 1960's by the NASA engineers of the
Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs which landed men on the moon.
History of Computers
5
Schickard's Calculating Clock
The first gear-driven calculating machine to actually be built in
1623 by the
German professor
Wilhelm Schickard
History of Computers
6
A Pascaline
In 1642 Blaise
Pascal, at age
19, invented the
Pascaline a gear-driven one-function calculator (it could only add).
History of Computers
7
Power Loom
In 1801, Joseph
Marie Jacquard invented a power loom that could base its weave upon a pattern automatically read from punched wooden cards.
Descendents of these punched cards have been in use ever since.
History of Computers
8
Babbage's Difference Engine
In1822, the English mathematician Charles Babbage was proposing a steam driven calculating machine the size of a room, which he called the
Difference Engine.
History of Computers
9
Analytic Engine
Charles Babbage created plans to build the Analytic Engine when he realized that punched paper could be employed as a storage mechanism. Because of the connection to the Jacquard loom, the two main parts of his Analytic Engine
were