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This book chronicles the the historical development of the computer from the ancient cave dreawing to the iPad. Subjects covered in this book are electricity, integrated circuits, writing, numbers, and the symbiotic relationship between money and numbers. Some of the personalities discussed are T. J. Watson, William Gates, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, Vannevar Bush, Lewiss Latimer, William Seward Burroughs, and Herman Hollerith. The historical journey through time. Is insightful and educational for both the amateur historians and the hard core researcher. Some of the inventions discussed herein are the invention of the incandescant light, the modern electrical system, the telephone, the radiotelegraph, the transistor, and the integrated circuit.
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COMPUTERS AND YOU
The Ordinary Man’s Guide to the History of Information
Technology: Computer History. Purchase at Amazon
DEFINITION OF COMPUTER
somebody who computes: somebody who
calculates numbers or amounts using a
machine
an electronic device that
accepts, processes, stores, and outputs data
at high speeds according to programmed
instructions
SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME
Since the dawn of time humans have tried to
comprehend the world about them
scientifically, spiritually, mathematically.
Cave drawings were the
first attempts to express
ideas and formulate
words.
FIRST ATTEMPTS TO CREATE NUMBERS
Tally sticks like the one shown
on the left were one of the first
methods early humans used to
compute.
The problem with the tally stick
is, it could not be corrected, and
it required one to one
correspondence with the object
being counted.
ONE OF THE FIRST NUMBER SYSTEM
Ancient Egypt is said to be the cradle
of civilization. It did provided one of
the first writing systems and abstract
number system. However, because of
its awkwardness, there were still
unnecessary complications. The
sample to the left is not conducive to
arithmetic.
FIRST CALCULATOR
The abacus was the first practical calculator that accepted the writing
system. The European abacus shown above was based on Roman numerals,
which was the counting system until about the 12th century. When the
particulars of the Hindu-Arabic system was translated into Latin for study of
mathematics by the clergy.
FIRST DESKTOP DIGITAL CALCULATOR
Calculating Clock
Invented by Wilhelm
Schickard in 1623
It was the first
calculator that could
add, subtract, multiply,
and divide.
It was mostly of wood.
The secret to its
versatility was the
newly invented Napier
Bones, also made of
wood
BLAISE PASCAL
Pascal, a child prodigy, without any
knowledge of Schickard’s accomplishments,
in 1642, invented the Pascaline.
The Pascaline was a metal box about 36
centimeters (cm) long, 13 cm wide, and
eight cm high.
It process numbers in the same manner as
one would dial a telephone. The Pascaline
could only add numbers. To subtract, one
used the “Nine’s Compliment.”
Now available at
Amazon.com
LEIBNIZ AND THE STEP DRUM
Whether he knew it or not Gottfried Leibniz
when he invented the Stepped Reckoner in
1671, changed the face of calculator technology
forever. Inspired by the Pascaline, he sought to
improve calculator technology, by creating one
that could perform all four arithmetic
operations.
His stepped drum calculator would influence the
building of adding machines for the next two
hundred years until the invention of the
keyboard calculators in 1884 by Dorr E. Felt.
Leibniz, who shared with Isaac Newton the
invention of Calculus, failed to produce a fully-
operational calculator
Now available at
Amazon.com
THE STEP DRUMS
Philipp Matthäus Hahn
borrowed from Leibniz and
produce a very successful
adding machine capable to
12 digits
Jacob Leupold proposed
using a counter to vary the
sprockets engaging on each
turn of the handle and
disengaging the geared
wheel where necessary for
his stepped drum.
CHARLES XAVIER THOMAS
The Thomas, invented in 1822, was the most commercially successful step drum
calculator ever invented. The Thomas was produced until the mid 1920s. It went
by a number of names MADAS, Unitas, TIM, and Archimedes.
FRANK STEVEN BALDWIN’S PINWHEEL CALCULATOR
Frank Baldwin invented the
pinwheel calculator in 1872. He
was not successful with the
calculator until he teamed with
Jay Randolph Monroe in 1912.
Even though it was more
accurate than the step drums, it
was not suited to the repetitive
drudgery of business.
Monroe quickly suggested the
Baldwin Calculator adapt the
81-key keyboard format. A
decade later Monroe and
Baldwin added electricity to the
calculator
KEY BOARD CALCULATORS
The Cadillac of the 19th century
adding machines no doubt was
the Burroughs Registering
Accountant. The side view
shows the glass inserts that
allowed potential customers to
view the inner workings of the
calculator.
This model cost $450 in 1884.
It was not the first keyboard
driven calculator but it was the
most expensive. It epitomized
the “Gilded Age” in which it was
born. Calculator carries the
name of the company’s founder
William Seward Burroughs.
THE DIFFERENCE ENGINES
Simultaneous to the development of the calculators was the ideal of Charles Babbage. Babbage had the notion that calculations could be compiled and printed without human intervention.
He called his machine the Difference Engine. The Difference Engine (1832) and later the more ambitious Analytical Engine (1837) would have automated calculations. Unfortunately, Babbage was never able to complete his either. The replica to the right was built 129 years after his death in 2002.
Historians like to state the Analytical Engine was the world’s first general-purpose computer, except it was never built. And according to text no human with natural strength could turn the crank to operate it.
Purchase at Amazon.com
THE SCHEUTZ CALCULATOR
Babbage did not work in a vacuum. He writings about the
Difference Engine influenced people throughout Europe. One
the first to take advantage of his works were two Swedes, Georg
Scheutz and son Edvard without any sketches or blueprints
built the Scheutz Difference Engine based on the writings of
Babbage. The Scheutz Engine or calculator utilized three
difference engines instead of the prescribed seven stipulated by
Babbage. Scheutz sold only two calculators.
OTHER DIFFERENCE ENGINES
Wiberg Difference
Engine developed in
1860
The Haman Difference
Engine of 1909
Story available at Amazon.com
THE FIRST TELEGRAPH
The computer has many fathers. By
1884, it had become obvious to those
in the industry, that current
calculating devices could not retain
any of it computations unless printed.
What was even more frustrating the
mechanical brutes could not transfer
its information unless by courier and
horse and rider.
One of the first solutions to the
transference of data though not
readily apparent was the telegraph.
The Cooke-Whetsone Telegraph
shown to the right was the first
commercially successful data
emission device. Still there was no
means of retaining the data except
with pencil and paper.
THE CASH REGISTER
James Ritty invented the next
ingredient to the modern
computer system, the point of
sale. Like it or not computers
conduct most of the commerce
transactions.
The Ritty cash register was the
first attempt at mechanizing the
point of sale.
Read the Ritty story and learn how National Cash Register
was born. The book is at Amazon.com
HOLLERITH TABULATING MACHINE
Another ingredient added to the mix was the
electric tabulating machine. Invented by
Herman Hollerith to process the census of
1890. The previous census 1880 had taken 7
years to hand count process all the economic
factors. Hollerith’s tabulator provided a
rough count of the entire population of the
United States, 63 million people, in 6 weeks.
It correlated all the economic factors for
family and business in just two years. For his
innovation he was paid 11 million dollars.
TELEPHONES PROVIDE THE CIRCUITS
Lewis Latimer was the man for all seasons a
mechanical draftsman by trade. He seem to be at
every important 19th century event involving
electricity. He is credited with the historic drawings
of the Bell Telephone laboring late into the night to
complete the drawing so Bell could file a patent just
hours before Elisha Gray.
Latimer was also provided professional testimony for
all patent infringement cases filed first by Edison
General Electric and later General Electric. He
patent for the production of light bulbs contributed to
making the light bulb a viable commodity.
THE FIRST RADIO
Most historians credit either Guglielmo
Marconi or Nikola Tesla with the
invention of the radio, the final ingredient
for the modern computer system.
However, the first commercially successful
radio was invented by former slave
Granville T. Woods.
Woods invented the Synchronous
Multiplex Railway Telegraph. An
induction radiotelegraph that could send
telegraph messages to and from moving
trains alerting the engineer of hazards
ahead. The inventions saved countless
lives and avoided numerous railroading
accidents. Read this story and others when
you purchase at Amazon
FIRST ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTER
ENIAC was 100 feet
long, 27 feet wide, 8
feet high, and weighed
30 tons. It had 70,000
vacuum tubes and
miles and miles of
cable.
THE MODERN PERSONAL COMPUTER
Ted Hoff invented the microprocessor
Jobs and Wozniak invented the first personal
computer
Mark Dean invented the Industry Standard
Architecture and is considered the father of
the personal computer.
Now at Amazon.com
CONCLUSION
All these stories and more are contained in
the book: The Ordinary Man’s Guide to the
History of Information Technology