History of computing- from the primitive Era to the birth of transistors

HISTORY OF COMPUTING (Concrete devices in computing)
Computing is largely connected to the representation and manipulation of numbers. The following are some of the concrete devices in computing.

Early counting devices
✅Fingers and toes
✅Stones, coins and sticks
✅Pebbles and cowries etc.

Mechanical counting/calculating devices
1.Abacus: the device allows users to make calculations using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack. It is divided into two parts; the upper part called the ‘heaven’ and the lower part called ‘earth’.

2. Napier’s bone: invented by John Napier in 1617. The device is a collection of moveable rods used to add, subtract, multiply and divide
3. Slide rule: Willaim Oughtred invented the slide rule in 1632 which was based on the concept of logarithm earlier invented by John Napier in 1614. It was used for making rapid calculations especially multiplication and division.
4. Blaise Pascal machine: Blaise Pascal, an 18 year old son of a tax collector invented a numerical wheel calculator (a mechanical adding machine) called PASCALINE in 1642. The machine used 8 moveable dials (like that on analogue telephone) to sum up to eight figures long.

Electro-mechanical calculating devices
5.Stepped reckoner: In 1671, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invented the Stepped Reckoner, an improvement over the PASCALINE. The device performs calculations based on multiplication and division.
6.Jacquard loom: Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented a mechanical loom called the Jacquard’s loom in 1801. The loom used a series of punched cards and was used to produce textile with fine patterns.
7.Charles Babbage Difference and Analytical engine: The real beginning of computer as we know them today, however, lay with an English professor, Charles Babbage. He created a difference engine used for solving differential equation in 1822 and in 1833 the Analytical engine (the first mechanical computer). The machine, though never completed, outlined the basic elements of a modern day general purpose computer. It included input device in the form of punch cards containing operating instructions and a ‘store’ for memory of 1000 numbers up to 50 decimal digits long. It also contained a ‘mill’ that serves as the control unit and output device to produce printed results. The instruction routines fed into the computer was created by Augusta Ada, Countess of Lovelace.
8.Hollerith machine: Herman Hollerith applied the Jacquard loom’s concept to computing. He used punched card to store data which was fed into a machine that compiled result mechanically. The machine was used to process 1890 US census which was released in just six weeks.
9.Mark 1: Howard Aiken built a computer called ‘Mark 1’or ASCC (Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator) in 1944. It was built to calculate canon shell trajectories. Programs and data were inputted through a punched paper ribbon. The machine was very slow, huge (weighted 5 tons) and contains 500 miles of wiring.
10. ENIAC (Electronic Numeric Integrator and Computer): J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly used vacuum tubes to develop the first general purpose computer ENIAC in 1946. It contained 18000 vacuum tubes, weighed 30 tons, occupied 1600 square feet and required 100 kilowatts of power.

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