Origin of Computer
- 2. Nearly 5,000 years ago, the “abacus” was developed in China in 3000 B.C. The word abacus means calculating board. The “abacus” may be considered the first computer. The Chinese abacus has a frame holding vertical wires, with seven beads on each wire.
- 3. John Napier was a mathematician who became famous for his invention of logarithms. The used of "logs" enabled him to reduce any multiplication problem. John Napier built a mechanical device for the purpose of multiplication in 1617 A.D. The device was known as Napier‟s bones.
- 4. English mathematician E. Gunter developed the slide rule. This machine could perform operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Although the slide rule appeared in various forms during the seventeenth century, it consists of two movable rulers placed side by side
- 5. Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician and one of the first modern scientists to developed and build calculator. He developed a machine at the age of 19 that was capable of adding and subtracting numbers. The machine was operated by dialing a series of wheels, gears and cylinders.
- 6. Like Pascal, Gottfried Leibniz was a seventeenth century scientist who recognized the value of building machines and built around 1673 a mechanical device that could do mathematical calculations and save labor too
- 7. In the 1820s Charles Babbage started working on a “Difference Engine” but after ten years he abandoned it for the Analytical Engine- the real predecessor of the computer.
- 8. The Analytical Engine marks the progression from the arithmetic calculation to general-purpose computation. It was also developed by Charles Babbage.
- 9. In the beginning of 19th century, the mechanical calculator was developed to perform all sorts of mathematical calculator. Up to the 1960s it was widely used. So it was called the electrical calculator.