Who Invented the First Computer?

When was Computer Invented Overview

There are many different categories for computers that cause confusion, and it is difficult to determine which category the first computer invention falls under. We could contend that the abacus or its ancestor, the slide rule, developed by William Oughtred in 1622, was the first computer. But the Analytical Engine, created by British mathematician Charles Babbage between 1833 and 1871, was the first computer that resembled today's contemporary devices. A human would physically sit around all day adding and subtracting numbers and entering the results into tables before Babbage invented the term "computer." 

When did the term "computer" first come into use?

The Yong Mans Gleanings by Richard Braithwaite, published in 1613, has the first recorded usage of the word "computer." Early computers were not machines at all; rather, they were workers. The phrase was first used in 1613. "Computers" were actually mathematicians and bookkeepers who carried out complex calculations. In 1897, a machine was the first to be referred to as a "computer" for the first time.

Also read about- Programming Languages and First Computer in the World.

The First Computer

The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest known computer (200 BC — 70 BC). It is a mechanical hand-powered device with an ancient-Greek design. It was allegedly used to compute eclipses and other astronomical events, according to archaeologists. The device has been variously dated to between 150 and 100 BC, or to 205 BC, and it is thought to have been devised and built by Greek scientists. Researchers suggested in 2022 that the machine's initial calibration date, rather than the actual date of manufacture, would have been December 23, 178 BC. Some scholars believe that the calibration date should be 204 BC. Up until the astronomical clocks of Richard of Wallingford and Giovanni de' Dondi in the fourteenth century, similar complicated machines had not been seen.

The Antikythera mechanism was a wooden box with at least 30 gears that measured 34 cm by 18 cm by 9 cm (13.4 in by 7.1 in by 3.5 in). It was covered in inscriptions. Many people believe that it had multiple simpler ancestors because of how sophisticated it is. Numerous clockwork "calculation machines" were developed in the centuries that followed. These often served a single function.

Who Invented the First Computer?

English polymath Charles Babbage is frequently referred to as "the man who invented computers." He created three computers between 1822 and 1871, but due to a lack of finance, none of them were ever constructed. Charles Babbage created and constructed the Difference Engine, the first automatic computing device, in 1822. It has the capacity to perform several mathematical operations and provide physical copies of the results. The Difference Engine was created by Babbage with the assistance of Ada Lovelace. Babbage is credited with creating the first computer, and he also made notes and sketches about the Difference Engine. Unreasonably, Babbage was unable to finish a fully functional prototype of this machine because he lacked the necessary funding. Later, in June 1991, the London Science Museum finished the Difference Engine No 2. Later, the London Science Museum finished up the printing mechanism. 

A subsequent Babbage computer concept called the Analytical Engine would have had an enormous 675 bytes of memory. He called the memory "the store" and the CPU "The Mill." Based on the Jacquard Loom punch card technology, which was created at the turn of the 19th century, punch cards were used as input. Calculations were primarily carried out by human computers in Babbage's day, and they were frequently inaccurate. He regarded mechanical computers as a means of eliminating mistakes. 

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Charles Babbage Background Information

The son of London banker Benjamin Babbage, Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1791. Babbage was well-read in the continental mathematics of his day and, as a young man, taught himself algebra, a subject he loved with a passion. When he enrolled in Trinity College in Cambridge in 1811, he discovered that his maths tutors were unable to keep up with him. In order to advance continental mathematics and change the Newtonian mathematics that was being taught in universities, Babbage co-founded the Analytical Society.

Babbage was a mathematician in his twenties, specializing in the calculus of functions. In 1816, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1820, he was instrumental in establishing the Astronomical Society (later the Royal Astronomical Society). Around this period, Babbage initially developed an interest in computing devices, which would later grow into a lifelong hobby.

Read more about the History of Computers.

Charles Babbage Highlights

The following table explains the details about the computer inventor- 

First Machine to Record and Store Information

Herman Hollerith created a mechanism for machines to capture and store data on punch cards known as the Tabulating Machine. The census office was able to save millions of dollars thanks to Hollerith's computer, which was around 10 times faster than manual tabulations. Later, Hollerith would form the organization that is now known as IBM. A tabulating machine would, in its simplest form, read one card at a moment, print sections (fields) of the card on fanfold paper, sometimes rearranging them, and add one or more punched numbers to one or more counters, known as accumulators. To retrieve totals on early models, the accumulator register dials had to be manually read after a card run. Later models allowed for direct printing of totals. Cards with a specific punch could be viewed as master cards and behave differently. 

First Programmable Computer

German Konrad Zuse built the Z1 in his parents' living room between 1936 and 1938. It is regarded as the first functional contemporary computer as well as the first electro-mechanical binary programmable computer.

First Computer Company

The Electronic Controls Company, established in 1949 by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, was the world's first computer business. Later, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation was used in place of Electronic Controls as the corporate name (EMCC). It also launched a line of mainframe computers under the UNIVAC brand. The ERA 1101 or UNIVAC 1101 was the first computer to store and run a program from memory and was first made available to the US government later in 1950. Furthermore, on April 7, 1953, IBM publicly unveiled the 701, the first commercial scientific computer.

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Who invented the PC

The world's first "personal computer," the Micral N, was created by François Gernelle in 1973. The Micral N cost 8,500 French Francs, could run 50,000 instructions per second, and had a 500 kHz speed. The first personal computer to experience any type of commercial success was the MITS Altair 8800 (1974). The computer was so popular that the business needed to add more employees just to keep up with demand. The MITS Altair 8800 was available as a kit for $439; a pre-assembled version was also available for an additional cost. Due to this design's adaptability, a number of creative people created modifications that consumers could apply to their models.

First Commercially successful Portable Computer 

The first portable computer to achieve commercial success was the IBM 5100 in 1975. Although it had a convenient travel case, giving it the label of "portable," you definitely wouldn't want to carry it about all day because it weighed 23 kg (50 lbs). The IBM 5100 had a 16-bit processor, supported QIC magnetic tape drives, and allowed users to choose between a white-on-black or black-on-white screen.