History of Computers

Computers, considered to be one of mankind’s greatest technological achievements have been in use for many years now. The history of computers in its current form can be traced back to the 1990s. The term `computer’ is derived from the The word computer is taken from the French term `computeur’ which literally means `a person who computes.’ It was in 1725 when Basile Bouchon started using perforated paper in his handloom to create a pattern that could be replicated precisely, several times, on a piece of cloth. He did this to ensure that the patterns once created, would remain same, and would be devoid of human errors.

In 1801, Joseph Jacquard modified Basile’s idea and developed the first punch card that was used to automate several other devices with greater efficiency. But the first computer in its true sense became a reality in the hands of Charles Babbage. He took the idea of punch card and successfully developed the world’s first computing system, which was mainly used for doing different types of scientific calculations. Babbage made several contributions to the world of computer technology by developing computing concepts, specifically, iterative loops, index variables and conditional branches.

Ada Lovelace who was a friend and partner of Babbage is attributed as the father of scientific computing. Later, many other notable scientists worked on the ideas forwarded by Babbage and made several significant contributions towards the development of modern computer. George Scheutz and his son, Edvard Scheutz, were two famous technological pioneers of that time who started an experiment to create a mini version of the computing device. In 1853, they met with success and developed a machine that could easily compute 15-digit numbers.

The device was able to compute complicated fourth-order differences. The first commercial use of computer was done by the US Census Bureau. The Bureau used the punch card device that was designed and developed by Herman Hollerith. The Bureau used the device to calculate data collected for the census in 1890. Hollerith later established the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896 to meet the cyclical demand for his devices from the Census Bureau. In 1911, this company merged with two other reputed technology firms to become IBM. Claude Shannon is the first person who spoke about introducing digital electronics in computers. In 1937, J.V. Atanasoff invented the first electronic computing device. This electronic computer was able to solve 29 equations simultaneously with 29 different numbers.

In 1940, the US military department asked John V. Mauchly to innovate a machine to calculate the number of ballistics used in World War II. But due to various technical reasons the machine missed the deadline and was finally completed in 1945. However, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) made a significant contribution in the history of computers by developing such a complicated and highly efficient computing machine. But the success of developing the UNIVAC, the first commercial computer goes to Eckert and Mauchly. The software technology developed during this time was not advanced. It is interesting to find out that the first programs were simply written in the form of machine code.