A computer is a machine that is able to store process and retrieve data to perform some function. The first ones to think about computing are the Muslims When they invented algorithms (Named after the Muslim Scholar "Alkhawarizimy") and that was in the 1200's. Algorithms are mathematical processes and steps to solve problems.
Early in the 1600's the Europeans developed mechanical calculators that aimed to solve simple mathematical problems such as addition. It was "Blaise Pascal" who invented the first commercial calculator that was a machine powered by hand that was only able to perform addition. "Gottfried Liebnitz" in the 1670's tried to manufacture multiplying machines but the first successful multiplying machines appeared in Germany just before the American war.
Computer
In 1801, "Joseph-Marie Jacquard" from France builds a loom that weaves after reading punch cards full of holes made out of wood. The cards of holes are used in the machines to define the pattern that the machine weaves by. This is typical data retrieval and processing. This machine was powered by water and it was 149 years before the invention of a real modern link computing machine.
Charles Babbage began looking for a programmable machine just after the first mass-produced calculator on 1820. Babbage was a poor man and a book-keeper but he managed to finish his machine on 1842 and "Ada Lovelace" used his machine to translate a short written work. She is known to be the first programmer ever in history. On 1854 "George Boole" a professor of Mathematics writes the "An Investigation of the Laws of Thought" and he becomes the recognized father of computer science.
On 1890 the census was tabulated on punch cards as the ones that were used before by "Joseph-Marie Jacquard" to make weaves. The system used electric power for the first time in history of computers and was made by "Herman Hollerith" from MIT.
In 1892 "William Burroughs" who was an ex-teller makes the first commercially successful printing calculator. The first one was hand power but then he developed the electrical one.
"Konrad Zuse" a German construction engineer on 1935 builds a new mechanical machine to perform the calculations required in his construction work. After it was finished he starts on creating a programmable calculating machine that was finished on 1938.
"John Vincent Atanasoff" in 1936 starts working on creating the first digital computer in the physics lab's basement with the assistance of "Clifford Berry". The machine was called the "ABC" machine and it introduced some of the modern features of computers such as electric calculation. The machine was later destroyed by the students in the school because the school administration was not impressed with the results.
The German makes the Enigma which was a very complex machine they thought it was unbreakable for encoding messages during the world war. Several people were involve in solving the problem of decoding enigma including the most notable "Alan Turing".
The enigma code was broken and this made the war shorter after the messages of the German were exposed.
Computer Evolution
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