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History of the Computer (Main Title)
In the beginning (Side Heading)
The history of computers began with the birth of the abacus about 2000 years ago. All regular mathematic problems could be done with this wooden rack of two horizontal wires with beads strung on them.
Pascal and Leibnitz (Paragraph Heading). Blaise Pascal is credited with building the first digital computer in 1642 that added numbers entered with dials. This was designed to help his father who was a tax collector. In 1694 Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz built a computer that could add, and, after changing some things around, could multiply. He invented a special “stepped gear mechanism.”
Babbage (Paragraph Heading). Years later, Charles Babbage (of which the computer store “Babbage’s” is named) a mathematics professor in Cambridge, England became very interested in computer development. In 1812 he realized that many long calculations were really a series of predictable actions that were constantly repeated. Therefore, he began to design an automatic mechanical calculating machine, called the “difference engine.” By 1823 Babbage, with the help of the British government, fabricated the engine. Although it had limited adaptability and applicability, it was really a great advance.
By 1833 Babbage lost interest in the difference engine and began developing a general purpose, fully program-controlled, automatic mechanical digital computer that he called the Analytical Engine. This was not fully appreciated until a full century later.
The analytical engine was soon to use punched cards which would be read into the machine from different stations. “The machine was supposed to operate automatically, by steam power, and required only one person there.”
Various reasons contributed to Babbage never finishing his computers. At that time, there was a lack of precision machining techniques to make the parts needed. Also, Babbage seemed to work on solving problems that few people in 1840 needed to solve.
Between 1850 and 1900 many advances were made in mathematical physics. The availability of steam power caused manufacturing, transportation, and commerce to prosper and led to a period of engineering achievements. “A strong need thus developed for a machine that could rapidly perform many repetitive calculations.”
Hollerith (Paragraph Heading). A step towards automated computing was the development of the punched card by Herman Hollerith and James Powers in 1890. The need to speed up the U.S. Census was a motivating factor. Their machine was the first to use electricity to compute. “Hollerith’s punched-card methods represented a big step forward in the development of faster and more accurate machines.”
The computer field continues to experience huge growth. Computer networking, computer mail, and electronic publishing are just a few of the applications that have grown in recent years. Advances in technologies continue to produce cheaper and more powerful computers.
(REFERENCES TO USE FOR THE FOOTNOTES & REFERENCE PAGE)
***Use for Footnote 3
Authors = Jack Kurshan, Samuel November, and Ryan Stone.
Title of Publication = Computer Literacy Through Applications.
Publishing Company = Houghton Mifflin Company
Date of Publication = 1986
Location = New York, NY
***Use for Footnote 1 & 2
Author = Robert X. Cringely
Copyright= 2007 (if no year given, use current year)
Title of Web Site = “Triumph of the Nerds”
Page Title= A History of the Computer
URL (Web Address) = http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/index.html
Date of Download = December 12, 2006