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Computing Essentials
2010 Edition
 Computing Essentials
2010 Edition

Timothy J. O’Leary
Arizona State University

Linda I. O’Leary

Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited

NEW DELHI
McGraw-Hill Offices
New Delhi New York St Louis San Francisco Auckland Bogotá Caracas
Kuala Lumpur Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal San Juan
Santiago Singapore Sydney Tokyo Toronto
 Information contained in this work has been obtained by
Tata McGraw-Hill, from sources believed to be reliable.
However, neither Tata McGraw-Hill nor its authors guarantee
the accuracy or completeness of any information published
herein, and neither Tata McGraw-Hill nor its authors shall be
responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out
of use of this information. This work is published with the
understanding that Tata McGraw-Hill and its authors are
supplying information but are not attempting to render
engineering or other professional services. If such services
are required, the assistance of an appropriate professional
should be sought.

Tata McGraw-Hill

COMPUTING ESSENTIALS, CUSTOMIZED EDITION 2010

Indian Adaptation done by arrangement with The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., New York
Second reprint 2007
DQRBLRAYRXZRR
Copyright © 2011, by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in
any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system,
without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,
including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage
or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.
Tata McGraw-Hill Edition 2010
ISBN –13: 978-0-07-107258-8
ISBN –10: 0-07-107258-6
Published by the Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited,
7 West Patel Nagar, New Delhi 110 008, and printed at Gopsons, A — 2&3,
Sector — 64, Noida, U.P. — 201301
Cover: Gopsons
 Contents

1 Light Pen 2-6

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THE Stylus 2-7

INTERNET, AND YOU 1-1 Scanning Devices 2-7

Information Systems 1-3 Optical Scanners 2-7

People 1-5 Bar Code Readers 2-8

Making IT Work for You: Character and Mark Recognition Devices 2-8

Information Technology Topics 1-6 Image Capturing Devices 2-9

Software 1-7 Digital Camera 2-9

System Software 1-7 Digital Video Camera 2-9

Application Software 1-7 Audio-Input Devices 2-10

Hardware 1-9 Voice 2-10

Types of Computers 1-9 Making IT Work for You:

Microcomputer Hardware 1-9 WebCams and Instant Messaging 2-11

Data 1-13 Music 2-13

Connectivity, the Wireless Revolution, What Is Output? 2-13

and the Internet 1-14 Monitors 2-14
A Look to the Future: Using and Understanding Features 2-14

Information Technology Means Being Computer Cathode-Ray Tube 2-14

Competent 1-15 Flat-Panel Monitor 2-15

Other Monitors 2-15
Printers 2-16
2 Features 2-16
INPUT AND OUTPUT 2-1
Ink-Jet Printer 2-17
What Is Input? 2-3
Laser Printer 2-17
Keyboard Entry 2-3
Thermal Printer 2-18
Keyboards 2-3
Other Printers 2-18
Features 2-4
Audio-Output Devices 2-19
Pointing Devices 2-5
Combination Input and Output
Mouse 2-5
Devices 2-19
Joystick 2-6
Fax Machines 2-19
Touch Screen 2-6
Multifunction Devices 2-19
` v
 Internet Telephone 2-20 Microprocessor Chips 4-9
Terminals 2-20 Specialty Processors 4-10
A Look to the Future: Electronic Translators May Be Memory 4-11
in Your Future 2-22 RAM 4-11
ROM 4-12

3 CMOS 4-12

SECONDARY STORAGE 3-1 System Clock 4-13

Storage 3-3 Expansion Slots and Cards 4-13
Floppy Disks 3-3 Making IT Work for You: TV Tuner Cards and

Traditional Floppy Disk 3-4 Video Clips 4-15

High Capacity Floppy Disks 3-5 Bus Lines 4-17

Hard Disks 3-6 Expansion Buses 4-17

Internal Hard Disk 3-6 Ports 4-18

Hard-Disk Cartridges 3-7 Standard Ports 4-18

Hard-Disk Packs 3-7 Cables 4-19

Performance Enhancements 3-8 Power Supply 4-19

Optical Disks 3-10 A Look to the Future: Xybernaut Corporation

Compact Disc 3-10 Makes Wearable Computers a Reality 4-20

Digital Versatile Disc 3-11

Other Types of Secondary 5
Storage 3-12 SYSTEM SOFTWARE 5-1
Solid-State Storage 3-12 System Software 5-3
Making IT Work for You: Operating Systems 5-4
Music from the Internet 3-13 Functions 5-4
Internet Hard Drives 3-15 Features 5-4
Magnetic Tape 3-16 Categories 5-5
Mass Storage Devices 3-16 Windows 5-7
A Look to the Future: Blu-Ray Technology and Mac OS 5-8
Plastic Memory Expected to Replace DVD 3-18 UNIX and Linux 5-8
Utilities 5-9
4 Windows Utilities 5-9
Utility Suites 5-12
THE SYSTEM UNIT 4-1
System Unit 4-3 Device Drivers 5-14
Electronic Data and Instructions 4-5 Making IT Work for You: Virus Protection and

Binary Coding Schemes 4-5 Internet Security 5-15

A Look to the Future: IBM Builds an Aware
System Board 4-7
Supercomputer 5-18
Microprocessor 4-9

vi Contents
 Physical Connections 7-5
6 Wireless Connections 7-5
THE INTERNET, THE WEB, AND Connection Devices 7-7
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE 6-1 Modems 7-7
The Internet and the Web 6-3 Connection Service 7-8
Access 6-4 Data Transmission 7-9
Providers 6-4
Bandwidth 7-9
Browsers 6-5
Protocols 7-10
Communication 6-7 Networks 7-10
E-Mail 6-7
Terms 7-10
Instant Messaging 6-9
Network Types 7-12
Discussion Groups 6-9
Local Area Networks 7-12
Making IT Work for You: Blocking Spam 6-11
Home Networks 7-13
Search Tools 6-13 Metropolitan Area Networks 7-13
Search Engines 6-13
Wide Area Networks 7-14
Metasearch Engines 6-14
Network Architecture 7-14
Specialized Search Engines 6-14
Configurations 7-14
Electronic Commerce 6-15 Making IT Work for You: Home
Web Storefronts 6-16
Networking 7-15
Web Auctions 6-16
Strategies 7-18
Security 6-17
Organizational Internets: Intranets and
Web Utilities 6-18 Extranets 7-20
Telnet 6-18
Intranets 7-21
FTP 6-18
Extranets 7-21
Plug-ins 6-18
Firewalls 7-21
Filters 6-19
A Look to the Future: Toyota and Sony Create
A Look to the Future: Internet2 Is a High-
Wireless Robotic Car 7-22
Performance Network 6-20

8
7 BASIC APPLICATION SOFTWARE 8-1
COMMUNICATIONS AND Application Software 8-3
NETWORKS 7-1 Common Features 8-3
Communications 7-3 Web-based Applications 8-4
Connectivity 7-3 Making IT Work for You: Speech
The Wireless Revolution 7-3 Recognition 8-5
Communication Systems 7-4 Word Processors 8-7
Communication Channels 7-5

Contents vii
 Features 8-7 Developing Multimedia Presentations 9-8
Case 8-7 Making IT Work for You: Digital Video
Spreadsheets 8-10 Editing 9-9
Features 8-10 Multimedia Authoring Programs 9-11
Case 8-11 Web Authoring 9-13
Database Management Systems 8-15 Web Site Design 9-13
Features 8-15 Web Authoring Programs 9-13
Case 8-15 Emerging Applications 9-14
Presentation Graphics 8-18 Virtual Reality 9-16
Features 8-18 Knowledge-based (Expert) Systems 9-16
Case 8-18 Robotics 9-17
Integrated Packages 8-20 A Look to the Future: The Future of Artificial
Case 8-20 Intelligence Is Emotional 9-18
Software Suites 8-21
Sharing Data between Applications 8-22
Copy and Paste 8-22
Object Linking and Embedding 8-22
A Look to the Future: Web-based Application
Software Updates Ease Maintenance 8-24

9
SPECIALIZED APPLICATION
SOFTWARE 9-1
Specialized Applications 9-3
Graphics 9-4
Desktop Publishing 9-4
Image Editors 9-4
Illustration Programs 9-4
Image Galleries 9-4
Graphics Suites 9-6
Audio and Video 9-6
Multimedia 9-7
Links and Buttons 9-8

viii Contents
 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,
THE INTERNET, AND YOU

COMPETENCIES
After you have read this chapter, you should be able to:
1 Explain the five parts of an information system: people, procedures, software,
hardware, and data.
2 Distinguish between system software and application software.
3 Discuss the three kinds of system software programs.
4 Distinguish between basic and specialized application software.
5 Identify the four types of computers and the four types of microcomputers.
6 Describe the different types of computer hardware including the system unit, input,
output, storage, and communication devices.
7 Define data and describe document, worksheet, database, and presentation files.
8 Explain computer connectivity, the wireless revolution, and the Internet.

CONTENTS
Information Systems 1-4
People 1-6
Software 1-8
Types of Computers 1-10
Hardware 1-10
Data 1-14
Connectivity, the Wireless Revolution, and the Internet 1-15
CHAPTER 1
J
ust as the Internet and the Web have affected all
of us, they have affected computer technology as • Microcomputers are common tools in all areas
well. Today, communication links to the Internet of life. Writers write, artists draw, engineers
are a common feature of almost all computer sys- and scientists calculate—all on microcomput-
tems. Information technology (IT) is a modern ers. Students and businesspeople do all this,
term that describes this combination of tradition- and more.
al computer and communication technologies. • New forms of learning have developed. People
The purpose of this book is to help you who are homebound, who work odd hours, or
become competent with computer technology. who travel frequently may take courses on the
Computer competency refers to acquiring com- Web. A college course need not fit within the
puter-related skills. These skills are indispensable usual time of a quarter or a semester.
tools for today. They include how to efficiently • New ways to communicate, to find people
and effectively use popular application packages with similar interests, and to buy goods are
and the Internet. available. All kinds of people are using elec-
In this chapter, we first present an overview of tronic mail, electronic commerce, and the
an information system: people, procedures, soft- Internet to meet and to share ideas and prod-
ware, hardware, and data. It is essential to under- ucts.
stand these basic parts and how connectivity What about you? How are you using informa-
through the Internet and the Web expands the tion technology? Many interesting and practical
role of information technology in our lives. In uses have recently surfaced to make our personal
subsequent chapters, we will describe these parts lives richer and more entertaining. These applica-
of an information system in detail. tions range from recording digital video clips to
Fifteen years ago, most people had little to do creating personalized Web sites.
with computers, at least directly. Of course, they To be competent with IT, you need to know
filled out computerized forms, took computerized the five parts of an information system: people,
tests, and paid computerized bills. But the real procedures, software, hardware, and data.
work with computers was handled by specialists— Additionally, you need to understand connectivi-
programmers data entry clerks, and computer ty, the wireless revolution, the Internet, and the
operators. Web and to recognize the role of information
Then microcomputers came along and changed technology in your personal and professional life.
everything. Today it is easy for nearly everybody to
use a computer.
 INFORMATION SYSTEMS

An information system has five parts: people, procedures, software, hardware, and
data. Connectivity allows computers to connect and share information, thereby
greatly expanding the capability and usefulness of an information system.

W hen you think of a microcomputer, perhaps you think of just the equipment itself. That is, you
think of the monitor or the keyboard. Yet, there is more to it than that. The way to think about
a microcomputer is as part of an information system. An information system has five parts: people,
procedures, software, hardware, and data. (See Figure 1-1.)

•� People: It is easy to overlook people as one of the five parts of an information system.
Yet this is what microcomputers are all about—making people, end users like you,
more productive.
•� Procedures: The rules or guidelines for people to follow when using software, hard
ware, and data are procedures. These procedures are typically documented in manuals
written by computer specialists. Software and hardware manufacturers provide manuals
with their products. These manuals are provided either in printed or electronic form.
•� Software: A program consists of the step-by-step instructions that tell the computer
how to do its work. Software is another name for a program or programs. The purpose
of software is to convert data (unprocessed facts) into information (processed facts).
For example, a payroll prgram would instruct the computer to take the number of
hours you worked in a week (data) and multiply it by your pay rate (data) to determine
how much you are paid for the week (information).

Figure 1-1 The five parts of an

information system

Information Technology, the Internet, and You www.olearyseries.com 1-3

• Hardware: The equipment that processes the data to create information is called hardware. It
includes the keyboard, mouse, monitor, system unit, and other devices. Hardware is controlled by
software.
• Data: The raw, unprocessed facts, including text, numbers, images, and sounds, are called data.
Processed, data yields information. Using the previous example, the data (number of hours worked
and pay rate) are processed (multiplied) to yield information (weekly pay).
Almost all of today’s computer systems add an additional part to the information system. This part,
called connectivity, allows computers to connect and to share information. These connections, includ-
ing Internet connections, can be by telephone lines, by cable, or through the air. Connectivity allows
users to greatly expand the capability and usefulness of their information systems.
In large computer systems, there are specialists who write procedures, develop software, and capture
data. In microcomputer systems, however, end users often perform these operations. To be a compe-
tent end user, you must understand the essentials of information technology (IT), including soft-
ware, hardware, and data.

q CONCEPT CHECK
} What are the five parts of an information system?
} What is the difference between data and information?
} What is connectivity?

1-4 CHAPTER 1
 PEOPLE
People are the most important part of an information system. Features in this book
include Making IT Work for You, Tips, and an interactive CD.

A lthough easy to overlook, people are surely the most important part of
any information system. Our lives are touched every day by computers and
information systems. Many times the contact is direct and obvious, such as
when we create documents using a word processing program or when we con-
nect to the Internet. Other times, the contact is not as obvious. Consider just
the four examples in Figure 1-2.
Throughout this book you will find a variety of features designed to help
you become computer competent and knowledgeable. These features include
Making IT Work for You, Tips, and the Computing Essential CD.
• Making IT Work for You. In the chapters that follow, you will find Making
IT Work for You features that present interesting and practical IT applica-
tions. Using a step-by-step procedure, you are provided with specific instruc-
Figure 1-2 Computers
in entertainment, business, tions on how to use each application. Figure 1-3 presents a list of these
education, and medicine applications.

Information Technology, the Internet, and You www.olearyseries.com 1-5

 MAKING IT WORK FOR YO U

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TOPICS

Information technology touches our lives every day in a personal way.
Many interesting and practical uses of IT have recently surfaced to
make our lives richer and more entertaining. In the following chapters,
you will find these applications presented in detail.

Blocking Spam Are you tired of TV Tuner Cards and Video Clips
unwanted e-mail in your Inbox? Do you Want to watch your favorite television
frequently spend valuable time sorting program while you work? Perhaps you
through junk e-mail? Installing spam would like to include a video clip from
blocking software can help. One of the a television program or from a DVD in a
best known is Spam Bully. See page class presentation. It's easy using a TV
6-11. tuner card. See page 4-15.
Speech Recognition Tired of using
your keyboard to type term papers? WebCams and Instant Messaging
Have you ever thought about using Do you enjoy chatting with your
your voice to control application soft- friends? Are you working on a project
ware? Perhaps speech recognition is and need to collaborate with others in
just what you are looking for. See your group? What if you could see and
page 8-5. hear your group online? Perhaps
Digital Video Editing Do you want instant messaging is just what you're
to make your own movie? Would you looking for. See page 2-11.
like to edit some home movies and dis-
tribute them to family and friends on
DVDs? It's easy with the right equip-
ment and software. See page 9-9.
Virus Protection and Internet
Security Worried about computer
viruses? Did you know that others
could be intercepting your private
e-mail? It is even possible for them to
gain access and control of your com-
puter system. Fortunately, Internet
security suites are available to help
ensure your safety while you are on the
Internet. See page 5-15.

Figure 1-3 Making IT Work for

You topics

1-6
 SOFTWARE
There are two kinds of software: system software and application soft-
ware. System software includes operating systems, utilities, and device
drivers. Application software is categorized as basic and specialized.

S oftware, as we mentioned, is another name for programs. Programs are the instructions that tell the com-
puter how to process data into the form you want. In most cases, the words software and programs are
interchangeable. There are two major kinds of software–system software and application software. You can
think of application software as the kind you use. Think of system software as the kind the computer uses.
SYSTEM SOFTWARE
The user interacts primarily with application
software. System software enables the appli-
cation software to interact with the computer
hardware. System software is "background"
software that helps the computer manage its
own internal resources.
System software is not a single program.
Rather it is a collection of programs, including the
following:
• Operating systems are programs that coor-
dinate computer resources, provide an inter-
face between users and the computer, and
run applications. Windows Vista and the Mac
OS X are two of the best-known operating
systems for today's microcomputer users. (See
Figure 1-4.)
• Utilities, also known as service programs,
perform specific tasks related to managing com-
puter resources. For example, the Windows util-
ity called Disk Defragmenter locates and elimi-
nates unnecessary file fragments and
rearranges files and unused disk space to
optimize computer operations.
�• Device drivers are specialized programs
designed to allow particular input or output
devices to communicate with the rest of the
computer system.
APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Application software might be described as
end user software. These programs can be cate- Figure 1-4 Windows and Mac
gorized as either basic or specialized applications. operating systems
Basic applications, or general-purpose applications are widely used in nearly all career areas.
They are the kinds of programs you have to know to be considered computer competent. One of
these basic applications is a browser to navigate, explore, and find information on the Internet.

Information Technology, the Internet, and You www.olearyseries.com 1-7

 Have you used the Internet? If so,
TIPS then you probably already know
how to use a browser. For those of you who do
not, here are a few tips to get you starled.
1 Start browser. Typically, all you need to do is
double-click the browser's icon on the
desktop.
2 Enter URL. In the browser's location box, type
the URL (uniform resource locator, or
address) of the Internet or Web location
(site) that you want to visit.
3 Press ENTER. On your keyboard, press the
ENTER key to connect to the site.
4 Read and explore. Once connected to the
site, read the information displayed on
your monitor. Using the mouse, move
the pointer on the monitor. When the Figure 1-5 Internet Explorer browser
pointer changes from an arrow to a
hand, click the mouse button to explore
other locations.
5 Close browser. Once you are done
exploring, click on your browser's
CLOSE button.

Type Description
Browser Connect to Web sites and display Web pages

Word processor Prepare written documents

Figure 1-6 Basic applications
Spreadsheet Analyze and summarize numerical data

Database management system Organize and manage data and information

Presentation graphics Communicate a message or persuade other people

(See Figure 1-5.) The two most widely used browsers are Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's
Navigator. For a summary of the basic applications, see Figure 1-6.
Specialized applications, also known as special-purpose applications, include thousands of
other programs that are more narrowly focused on specific disciplines and occupations. Some of the
best known are graphics, audio, video, multimedia, Web authoring, and artificial intelligence pro-
grams.

q CONCEPT CHECK
} Describe the two major kinds of software.
} Describe three types of system software programs.
} Define and compare basic and specialized applications.

1-8 CHAPTER 1
 TYPES OF COMPUTERS
Four types of computers are supercomputer, mainframe computer, minicomputer, and
microcomputer. Desktop, notebook, tablet PC, and handheld are types of microcom-
puters. Microcomputer hardware consists of the system unit, input/output, second-
ary storage, and communications devices.

C omputers are electronic devices that can follow instructions to accept input, process that input,
and produce information. This book focuses principally on microcomputers. However, it is almost
certain that you will come in contact, at least indirectly, with other types of computers.

There are four types of computers: supercomputers, mainframe computers, minicomputers, and micro-
computers.
• Supercomputers are the most powerful type of computer. These machines are special high-capacity
computers used by very large organizations. For example, NASA uses supercomputers to track and con-
trol space explorations.
• Mainframe computers occupy specially wired, air-conditioned rooms. Although not nearly as pow-
erful as supercomputers, mainframe computers are capable of great processing speeds and data stor-
age. For example, insurance companies use mainframes to process information about millions of pol-
icyholders.
• Minicomputers, also known as midrange computers, are refrigerator-sized machines. Medium-
sized companies or departments of large companies typically use them for specific purposes. For exam-
ple, production departments use minicomputers to monitor certain manufacturing processes and
assembly line operations.
• Microcomputers are the least powerful, yet the most widely used and fastest-growing, type of
computer. There are four types of microcomputers: desktop, notebook, tablet PC, and handheld
computers. (See Figure 1-9.) Desktop computers are small enough to fit on top of or alongside a
desk yet are too big to carry around. Notebook computers, also known as laptop computers, are
portable, lightweight, and Fit into most briefcases.
• A tablet PC is a type of notebook computer that accepts your handwriting. This input is digitized
and converted to standard text that can be further processed by programs such as a word processor.
Handheld computers are the smallest and are designed to fit into the palm of one hand. Also
known as palm computers, these systems typically combine pen input, writing recognition, person-
al organizational tools, and communications capabilities in a very small package. Personal digital
assistants (PDA) are the most widely used handheld computer.

HARDWARE On the Web Explorations

MICROCOMPUTER HARDWARE
To learn more about a
Hardware for a microcomputer system consists of a variety of different leading manufacturer of
devices. See Figure 1-8 for a typical desktop system. This physical equip- microprocessors,visit our
ment falls into four basic categories: system unit, input/output, second- Web site at www.olearyseries.com
ary storage, and communication. Because we discuss hardware in detail and select On the Web
later in this book, here we will present just a quick overview of the four Explorations.
basic categories.

Information Technology, the Internet, and You www.olearyseries.com 1-9

 Figure 1-7 Microcomputers

•� System unit: The system unit, also known as the system cabinet or chassis, is a contain-
er that houses most of the electronic components that make up a computer system. (See Figure
1-9.) Two important components of the system unit are the microprocessor and memory. The
microprocessor controls and manipulates data to produce information. Many times the
microprocessor is contained within a protective cartridge. Memory also known as primary
storage or random access memory (RAM), holds data and program instructions for pro-
cessing the data. It also holds the processed information before it is output. Memory is some-
times referred to as temporary storage because its contents will typically be lost if the elec-
trical power to the computer is disrupted.
• Input/output: Input devices translate data and programs that humans can understand into
a form that the computer can process. The most common input devices are the keyboard and
the mouse. Output devices translate the processed information from the computer into a
form that humans can understand. The most common output devices are monitors or video
display screens (see Figure 1-10) and printers.

1-10 CHAPTER 1
 Figure 1-8 Microcomputer
system

Figure 1-9 System unit

1-11 C H A P T the
Information Technology, E R Internet,
1 and You www.olearyseries.com 1-11
 � Secondary storage: Unlike memory, secondary storage
On the Web Explorations devices hold data and programs even after electrical power to
the computer system has been turned off. The most important
To learn more about one of the leaders kinds of secondary media are floppy, hard, and optical disks.
in the development of DVD technology, Floppy disks are widely used to store and transport data from
visit our Web site at one computer to another. (See Figure 1-11.) They are called
www.olearyseries.com floppy because data is stored on a very thin flexible, or floppy,
and select On the Web Explorations. plastic disk. Hard disks are typically used to store programs
and very large data files. Using a rigid metallic platter, hard
disks have a much greater capacity and are able to access infor-
mation much faster than floppy disks. Optical disks use laser technology and have the greatest
capacity. (See Figure 1-12.) The two basic types of optical disks are compact discs (CDs) and digital
versatile (or video) discs (DVDs).
� Communication: At one time, it was uncommon for a microcomputer system to communicate with
other computer systems. Now, using communication devices, a microcomputer can communicate
with other computer systems located as near as the next office or as far away as halfway around the
world using the Internet. The most widely used communication device is a modem, which modifies
telephone communications into a form that can be processed by a computer. Modems also modify
computer output into a form that can be transmitted across standard telephone lines.

q CONCEPT CHECK
} What are the four types of computers?
} Describe the four types of microcomputers.
} Describe the four basic categories of microcomputer hardware.

Figure 1-11 A 3½-inch floppy disk

Figure 1-10 Monitor

Figure 1-12 An optical disk

1-12 CHAPTER 1
 DATA
Data is unprocessed facts. Processing data creates information. Four common file
types are document, worksheet, database, and presentation.

D ata is raw, unprocessed facts, including text, numbers, images, and sounds. As we have mentioned
earlier, processed data becomes information. When stored electronically in files, data can be used
directly as input for the system unit.
Four common types of files (see Figure 1-13) are:
• Document files, created by word processors to save documents such as memos, term papers, and
letters.
• Worksheet files, created by electronic spreadsheets to analyze things like budgets and to predict
sales.
• Database files, typically created by database management programs to contain highly structured
and organized data. For example, an employee database file might contain all the workers' names,
social security numbers, job titles, and other related pieces of information.
• Presentation files, created by presentation graphics programs to save presentation materials. For
example, a file might contain audience handouts, speaker notes, and electronic slides.

Figure 1-13 Four types of

files: document, worksheet,
database, and presentation

Information Technology, the Internet, and You www.olearyseries.com 1-13

 CONNECTIVITY, THE WIRELESS REVOLUTION, AND THE INTERNET

Connectivity allows sharing of information worldwide. The wireless revolution is

expected to alter communications and computer systems. Networks connect com-
puters. The Internet is the largest network in the world.

C onnectivity is the capability of your microcomputer to share information with

other computers. The single most dramatic change in connectivity in the past five
years has been the widespread use of mobile or wireless communication devices. For
just a few of these devices, see Figure 1-14. Many experts predict that these wireless
applications are just the beginning of the wireless revolution, a revolution that
is expected to dramatically affect the way we communicate and use computer
technology.
Central to the concept of connectivity is the network or computer network. A net-
work is a communications system connecting two or more computers. The largest net-
work in the world is the Internet. It is like a giant highway that connects you to millions
of other people and organizations located throughout the world. The Web, also known
as the World Wide Web or WWW provides a multimedia interface to the numerous
resources available on the Internet.

q CONCEPT CHECK
} Define data. List four common types of files.
} Define connectivity and the wireless revolution. What is a network?

Figure 1-14 Wireless communication

devices

1-14 CHAPTER 1
 A Look to the Future
Using and Understanding Infor- user should focus on these features. Chapters 4
through 7 explain what you need to know about
mation Technology Means Being hardware. A Buyer's Guide and an Upgrader's
Computer Competent Guide are presented at the end of this book for
those considering the purchase or upgrade of a
The purpose of this book is to microcomputer system.
help you use and understand
infor-mation technology. We SECURITY AND PRIVACY
want to help you become com-
puter competent in today's What about people? Experts
world and to provide you with agree that we as a society must
a foundation of knowledge so be careful about the potential
that you can understand how of technology to negatively
technology is being used today impact our personal privacy and
and anticipate how technolo- security. Additionally, we need
gy will be used in the future. to be aware of potential physi-
This will enable you to benefit cal and mental health risks asso-
from four important informa- ciated with using technology.
tion technology develop-ments. Finally, we need to be aware of negative effects on
our environment caused by the manufacture of com-
THE INTERNET AND THE WEB puterrelated products. Thus, Chapter 10 explores
each of these critical issues in detail.
The internet and the Web are considered by most
to be the two most important technologies for the ORGANIZATIONS
21st century. Understanding how to efficiently and
effectively use the internet to browse the Web, Almost all organizations rely on the quality and
communicate with others, and locate information flexibility of their information systems to stay
are indispensable computer competencies. These competitive. As a member or employee of an
issues are presented in Chapter 6, The internet, the organization, you will undoubtedly be involved
Web, and Electronic Commerce. in these information systems. Therefore, you
need to be knowledgeable about the different
POWERFUL SOFTWARE types of organizational information systems and
The software now available can do an extra-ordi- how they are used. Accordingly, we devote
nary number of tasks and help you in an end-less Chapters 11 through 14 to detail what you need
number of ways. You can create professional to know about information systems and how to
looking documents, analyze massive amounts of develop, modify, and maintain these systems.
data, create dynamic multimedia Web pages, and
much more. Today's employers are expecting the CHANGING TIMES
people they hire to be able to effectively and Are the times changing any faster now than they
efficiently use a variety of different types of soft- ever have? Most people think so. Whatever the
ware. Basic and specialized applications are pre- answer, it is clear we live in a fast-paced age. The
sented in Chapters 8 and 9. System software is Evolution of the Computer Age section present-
presented in Chapter 5. ed at the end of this book tracks the major devel-
POWERFUL HARDWARE opments since computers were first introduced.
After reading this book, you will be in a very
Microcomputers are now much more powerful than favorable position compared with many other
they used to be. New communication technologies people in industry today. You will learn not only
such as wireless networks are dramatically changing the basics of hardware, software, connectivity, the
the ways to connect to other computers, networks, internet, and the Web, but you will also learn the
and the internet. However, despite the rapid most current technology. You will be able to use
change of specific equipment, their essential fea- these tools to your advantage.
tures remain unchanged. Thus, the competent end

Information Technology, the Internet, and You www.olearyseries.com 1-15

INPUT AND OUTPUT

COMPETENCIES
After you have read this chapter, you should be able to:
1 Define input.

2 Describe keyboard entry, pointing devices, and scanning devices.

3 Discuss image capturing devices, including digital cameras, digital video cameras,
and audio input devices.
4 Define output.
5 Describe monitors, printers, and audio output devices.

6 Discuss combination input and output devices, including fax machines, multifunc-
tional devices, Internet telephones, and terminals.

CONTENTS
What is input? 2-3 Audio-input devices 2-10
Keyboard entry 2-3 What is output? 2-13
Point devices 2-5 Monitors 2-14
Scanning devices 2-7 Printers 2-16
Image capturing devices 2-9
CHAPTER 2
H ow do you get data to the CPU? How do you get While input devices convert what we understand
information out? Here we describe one of the most into what the system unit can process, output
unportant places where the computer interfaces devices convert what the system unit has processed
with people. We input text, music, and even into a form that we can understand. Output
speech, but we probably never think about the devices translate machine language into letters,
relationship between what we enter and what the numbers, sounds, and images that people can
computer processes. People understand language, understand.
which is constructed of letters, numbers, and Competent end users need to know about
punctuation marks. However, computers can under the most commonly used input devices, including
stand only the binary machine language of 0s and keyboards, mice, scanners, digital cameras,
1s. Input devices are essentially translators. input digitizing tablets, voice recognition, and MIDI
devices translate numbers, letters, and actions that devices. Additionally, they need to know about
people understand into a form that computers can the most commonly used output devices, including
process. monitors, printers, and audio output devices.
Have you ever wondered how information And, end users need to be aware of combination
processed by the system unit is converted into a input and output devices such as fax machines,
form that you can use? That is the role of output multifunctional devices, internet telephones, and
devices. terminals.
 WHAT IS INPUT?
Input consists of data and instructions. Input devices translate what people understand
into a form that computers can process.

Input is any data or instructions that are used by a computer. They can come directly from you or from
other sources. You provide input whenever you use system or application programs. For example, when
using a word processing program, you enter data in the form of numbers and letters and issue commands
such as to save and to print documents. You also can enter data and issue commands by pointing to items,
or using your voice. Other sources of input include scanned or photographed images.
Input devices are hardware used to translate words, sounds, images, and actions that people
understand into a form that the system unit can process. For example, when using a word processor,
you typically use a keyboard to enter text and a mouse to issue commands. In addition to keyboards
and mice, there are a wide variety of other input devices. These include pointing, scanning, image
capturing, and audio-input devices.

KEYBOARD ENTRY
Keyboards translate numbers, letters, and special characters. Traditional, ergonomic, flexible, wireless, and PDA
are types of keyboards. Numeric keypads, toggle and combination keys are keyboard features.

O ne of the most common ways to input data is by keyboard. As

mentioned in Chapter 4, keyboards convert numbers, letters,
and special characters that people understand into electrical sig-
nals. These signals are sent to, and processed by, the system unit.
Most keyboards use an arrangement of keys given the name
QWERTY. This name reflects the keyboard layout by taking the let-
ters of the first six alphabetic characters found on the fourth row of
keys.
Figure 2-1 Flexible keyboard KEYBOARDS
There are a wide variety of different keyboard designs. They range
from the full-sized to miniature and from rigid to flexible.
The most common types are:
• Traditional keyboards—full-sized, rigid, rectangular key-
boards that include function, navigational, and numeric keys.
• Flexible keyboards—fold or roll up for easy packing or stor-
age. They are designed to provide mobile users with a fullsized
keyboard with minimal storage requirements. (See Figure 2-1.)
• Ergonomic keyboards—similar to traditional keyboards.
The keyboard arrangement, however, is not rectangular and
a palm rest is provided. They are designed specifically to
alleviate wrist strain associated with the repetitive movements
Figure 2-2 Ergonomic keyboard of typing. (See Figure 2-2.)

Input and Output www.olearyseries.com 2-3

• Wireless keyboards—transmit input to the system unit On the Web Explorations
through the air. By eliminating connecting wires to the
People are spending more
system unit, these keyboards provide greater flexibility and time at their computer than
convenience. ever before. Consequently, the
• PDA keyboards—miniature keyboards for PDAs used to need for ergonomic keyboards
send e-mail, create documents, and more. (See Figure 2-3.) is increasing. To learn more
about one manufacturer of
FEATURES ergonomic keyboards, visit
A computer keyboard combines a typewriter keyboard with a our Web site at
numeric keypad, used to enter numbers and arithmetic symbols. www.olearyseries.com
It also has many special-purpose keys. Some keys, such as the Caps and select On the Web
Lock key, are toggle keys. These keys turn a feature on or off. Explorations.
Others, such as the Ctrl key, are combination keys, which per-
form an action when held down in combination with another key.
To learn more about keyboard features see Figure 2-4.

q CONCEPT CHECK
} What is input? What are input devices?
} Discuss the five common types of keyboard designs.
} What are some common keyboard features?

Figure 2-3 PDA keyboard

Figure 2-4 Traditional

keyboard

2-4 CHAPTER 2
 POINTING DEVICES
A mouse controls a pointer on the monitor. Joysticks are used primarily for games. Touch
screens are pressure-sensitive monitors. Light pens close circuits on special monitors. Tablet
PCs and PDAs use styluses.

P ointing, of course, is one of the most natural of all human gestures. Pointing devices provide a
comfortable interface with the system unit by accepting pointing gestures and converting them into
machine-readable input. There is a wide variety of different pointing devices, including the mouse, joy-
stick, touch screen, light pen, and stylus.
MOUSE
A mouse controls a pointer that is displayed on the monitor. The mouse pointer usually appears in
the shape of an arrow. It frequently changes shape, however, depending on the application. A mouse
can have one, two, or more buttons, which are used to select command options and to control the
mouse pointer on the monitor. Some mice have a wheel button that can be rotated to scroll through
information that is displayed on the monitor. Although there
are several different mouse types, there are three basic designs:
• Mechanical mouse is generally considered the traditional
type and was the most widely used. It has a ball on the
bottom and is attached with a cord to the system unit. As you
move the mouse across a smooth surface, or mouse pad, the
roller rotates and controls the pointer on the screen.
• Optical mouse has no moving parts. It emits and senses light
to detect mouse movement. This newer type of mouse has
some advantages compared to the mechanical mouse: it can be
used on any surface, is more precise, and does not require peri-
odic cleaning. (See Figure 2-5.)
• Cordless or wireless mouse is a battery-powered device
Figure 2-5 Optical mouse that typically uses radio waves or infrared light waves to
comunicate with the system unit. These devices eliminate the
mouse cord and free up desk space.
Three devices similar to a mouse are trackballs, touch surfaces, and pointing sticks. You can use the
trackball, also known as the roller ball, to control the pointer by rotating a ball with your thumb. (See
Figure 2-6.) You can use touch surfaces, or touch pads, to control the pointer by moving and tapping
your finger on the surface of a pad. (See Figure 2-7.) You can use a pointing stick, located in the mid-
dle of the keyboard, to control the pointer by directing the stick with your finger. (See Figure 2-8.)

Figure 2-6 Trackball Figure 2-7 Touch surface Figure 2-8 Pointing stick

Input and Output www.olearyseries.com 2-5

JOYSTICK
A joystick is the most popular input device for computer games. You control game actions by varying
the pressure, speed, and direction of the joystick. Additional controls, such as buttons and triggers, are
used to specify commands or initiate specific actions. (See Figure 2-9.)

TOUCH SCREEN
A touch screen is a particular kind of monitor with a clear plastic outer layer. Behind this layer are
crisscrossed invisible beams of infrared light. This arrangement enables someone to select actions or
commands by touching the screen with a finger. Touch screens are easy to use, especially when people
need information quickly. They are commonly used at restaurants, automated teller machines (ATMs),
and information centers. (See Figure 2-10.)

LIGHT PEN
A light pen is a light-sensitive penlike device. The light pen is
placed against the monitor. This closes a photoelectric circuit
and identifies the spot for entering or modifying data. For
example, light pens are used to edit digital images. (See Figure
2-11.)

Figure 2-9 A joystick: a computer game application

Figure 2-10 A touch screen: a consumer

application Figure 2-11 A light pen: a home application

2-6 CHAPTER 2
 STYLUS
A stylus is a penlike device commonly used with tablet PCs
and PDAs. (See Figure 2-12.) A stylus uses pressure to draw
images on a screen. A stylus interacts with the computer
through handwriting recognition software. Handwriting
recognition software translates handwritten notes into
a form that the system unit can process.
Graphics tablets use a special graphics surface or
tablet and a stylus. Either the user sketches directly on the
tablet or traces images that have been placed on the
tablet. Graphics tablets are very specialized devices used
by artists for creating illustrations, by mapmakers to
record or trace maps, and by engineers to save mechanical
drawings digitally.

Figure 2-12 Stylus q CONCEPT CHECK

} What is a pointing device? Describe five pointing devices.
} Describe three basic mouse designs.
} Describe trackballs, touch surfaces, and pointing sticks.

SCANNING DEVICES
Optical scanners copy or reproduce text and images. Bar code readers identify
and price products. Character and mark recognition devices recognize special
characters and marks.

S canners move across text and images. Scanning devices convert scanned text and images into a
form that the system unit can process. There are three types of scanning devices: optical scanners,
bar code readers, and character and mark recognition devices.
OPTICAL SCANNERS
An optical scanner, also known simply as a scanner, accepts documents consisting of text and/or
images and converts them to machine-readable form. These devices do not recognize individual letters
or images. Rather, they recognize light, dark, and colored areas that make up individual letters or
images. Typically, scanned documents are saved in files that can be further processed, displayed, print-
ed, or stored for later use. There are two basic types of optical scanners: flatbed and portable. (See
Figure 2-13.)
• Flatbed scanner is much like a copy machine. The image to be scanned is placed on a glass surface
and the scanner records the image from below.
• Portable scanner is typically a handheld device that slides across the image, making direct contact.
Optical scanners are powerful tools for a wide variety of end users, including graphics and advertising
professionals who scan images and combine them with text. Lawyers and students use portable scanners
as a valuable research tool to record information.

Input and Output www.olearyseries.com 2-7

BAR CODE READERS
You are probably familiar
with bar code readers or
scanners from grocery stores.
(See Figure 2-14.) These
devices are either handheld
wand readers or platform
scanners. They contain pho-
toelectric cells that scan or
read bar codes, or the verti-
cal zebra-striped marks printed on product containers. Figure 2-13 Two types of
Almost all supermarkets use electronic cash registers and a bar scanners
code system called the Universal Product Code (UPC). At the
checkout counter, electronic cash registers use a bar code reader
to scan each product's UPC code. The codes are sent to the
supermarket's computer, which has a description, the latest
price, and an inventory level for each product. The computer
processes this input to update the inventory level and to pro-
vide the electronic cash register with the description and price
for each product. These devices are so easy to use that many
supermarkets are offering customers self-checkout stations.
CHARACTER AND MARK RECOGNITION DEVICES
Character and mark recognition devices are scanners that
are able to recognize special characters and marks. They are spe-
cialty devices that are essential tools for certain applications.
Figure 2-14 A bar code reader is
Three types are:
used to record product codes
• Magnetic-ink character recognition (MICR)—used by
banks to automatically read those unusual numbers on the
bottom of checks and deposit slips. A special-purpose machine
known as a reader/sorter reads these numbers and provides
input that allows banks to efficiently maintain customer
account balances.
• Optical-character recognition (OCR)—uses special
preprinted characters that can be read by a light source and
changed into machine-readable code. A common OCR device
is the handheld wand reader. (See Figure 2-15.) These are used
in department stores to read retail price tags by reflecting
light on the printed characters.
• Optical-mark recognition (OMR) is also called mark sens-
ing. An OMR device senses the presence or absence of a mark,
such as a pencil mark. OMR is often used to score multiple-
choice tests such as the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude
Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

Figure 2-15 A wand reader is

used to record product codes

2-8 CHAPTER 2
q CONCEPT CHECK
} How are pointing and scanning devices different?
} Describe three types of scanners.
} Describe three common character and mark recognition devices.

IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICES

Digital cameras capture still images. Digital video cameras capture motion.
WebCams are specialized digital video cameras.

O ptical scanners, like traditional copy machines, can make a copy

from an original. For example, an optical scanner can make a
digital copy of a photograph. Image capturing devices, on the
other hand, create or capture original images. These devices
include digital cameras and digital video cameras.
DIGITAL CAMERA
Digital cameras are similar to traditional cameras except that
images are recorded digitally on a disk or in the camera's memory
rather than on film and then downloaded, or transferred, to your
computer. (See Figure 2-16.) You can take a picture, view it imme-
diately, and even place it on your own Web page, within minutes.
To learn more about how digital photography works, consult your
Figure 2-16 A digital Computing Essentials CD or visit us on
camera the Web at www.olearyseries. com and
select Animations. Digital photographs
can be shared easily with others over
the Internet.
DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA
Unlike traditional video cameras, digi-
tal video cameras record motion digi-
tally on a disk or in the camera's memo-
ry. Most have the capability to take still
images as well. WebCams (Web cam-
eras) are specialized digital video cam-
eras that capture images and send them
to a computer for broadcast over the
Internet. (See Figure 2-17.) To learn
more about WebCams, consult your
Computing Essentials CD or visit our Web site at
www.olearyseries.com and select Expansions. To learn how you can
videoconference, see Making IT Work for You: WebCams and Instant
Messenging on pages 2-11 and 2-12.

Figure 2-17 A WebCam

Input and Output www.olearyseries.com 2-9

 Are you having trouble getting the kind of photos you want with a digital
camera? Would you like to make the most of digital technology in your pho- TIPS
tos? Here are some tips to help you get started:
1 Buttons and Knobs. Get to know the functions of your camera before you begin. Most cameras
have an automatic mode, but be sure you know how to turn on the flash, zoom the lens, and
set the image resolution.
2 Photography Basics. Many digital cameras have an LCD screen on the back. You can use it to help frame
your shots more accurately. Just be aware that using the LCD screen uses more battery power.
3 Red-eye Reduction. Many digital cameras have a red-eye reduction feature. When photograph-
ing people in low light, you can use this setting to eliminate glassy red eyes in photos. Consult
your owner's manual to learn more about this feature.

q CONCEPT CHECK
} How are digital cameras different from traditional cameras?
} What is a WebCam?

AUDIO-INPUT DEVICES
Audio-input devices convert sounds for processing. Voice recognition systems accept
voice commands to control computer operations and to create documents. MIDI is a
standard for connecting musical instruments to the system unit.

A udio-input devices convert sounds into a form that can be processed by the system unit. By far the
most widely used audio-input device is the microphone. Audio-input can take many forms, includ-
ing the human voice and music.

VOICE
Voice recognition systems use a microphone, a sound card, and special soft-
ware. These systems allow users to operate computers and to create documents
using voice commands. Portable voice recognition systems are widely used by
doctors, lawyers, and others to record dictation. (See Figure 2-18.) These devices
are able to record for several hours before connecting to a computer system
to edit, store, and print the dictated information. Some systems are even able
to translate dictation from one language to another; such as from English
to Japanese.
Voice recognition is a common feature with many of today's newest soft-
ware applications. For example, recent versions of Microsoft's Word sup-
port voice recognition. Using the Language bar, you can switch between Figure 2-18 A portable
voice command mode and dictation mode. (See Figure 2-19.) voice recognition system
• Voice command mode allows the user to select menu items, toolbars, and
dialog box options. For example, to specify the use of the Times New Roman
font requires this command sequence:
Format>Font>Times New Roman>OK

2-10 CHAPTER 2
 MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU
WEBCAMS AND INSTANT MESSAGING

Do you enjoy chatting with your friends? Are you working on a project
and need to collaborate with others in your group? What if you could
see and hear your group online? Perhaps instant messaging is just what
you're looking for. It's easy and free with an Internet connection and
the right software.
Sending Messages and Transferring Files Affer installing free instant
messaging soffware, you can exchange messages and files with friends. Your
friends are added to a list of contacts that shows you when your friends are online
and available to chat. For example, you could use Windows Messenger as follows:

1 • Add contacts by
clicking Add a contact
and following the on-
screen instructions. Contacts
currently
online
• Double-click the name
of a friend who
Send
appears in the Online file

section.
• Enter your message in Add a
Contact
the window that
appears.
• Click the Send button.

Your message appears on your friend's

Message Send
screen instantly. Your friend can then area button

continue the conversation by following

the steps above.

2 • Click Send a File or Photo in the I want to.., menu in the sidebar.

• Browse for the file you would like to share, and click Open.

Your friend is given an option to accept the file. Once your friend accepts, you can continue your conversation
without interruption while the file is transferred.

2-11
Using a WebCam In addition to typing text messages, some instant messaging soffware allows you to
have voice or video conversations over the Internet so you can see and hear the person you are collaborating with.
To do this, both users must have a microphone an speakers, as well as Web cameras for video conferencing. You
could hold a video conference using Windows
Messenger by following these steps.
1 • Start a conversation with a contact
as shown in the Sending Messages
Video image
of your friend
and Transferring Files section.

• Click Start Camera in the sidebar. Video image

you are
sending
Your friend is given the option to accept the video con-
ference. Once he or she accepts, the video conference
begins.
Speaker and
microphone
2 • As you speak, adjust the Speakers slides

and Microphone sliders to

comfortable levels.

Sharing and Application Sharing application is

another way to collaborate using instant messaging soft-
ware. Sharing application allows you to surf the Web or edit a document over the Internet while working with a friend.
For example, you could collaborate with a friend on a Microsoft Word document by following the steps below:
1
1 • Start a conversation with a contact as shown in the Sending Messages and File
Transfer section. 1
• Click Start Application Sharing in the
sidebar. 1
Your friend is given the option to accept the application
sharing session. Once he or she accepts, the application
sharing session begins.
2 • Select the application you want to
share in the Share Programs list, and
Share Programs List

click the Share button.

• Click the Allow Control button to
allow your friends to control the
shared application.
• Click the Close button.
Your application can be controlled by you and your friend
simultaneously.
The Web is continually changing, and some of the specifics presented in this Making IT Work for You may have
changed. To learn more about other ways to make information technology work for you, visit our Web site at
www.olearyseries.com and select Making IT Work for You.

2-12
 Language bar

Figure 2-19 Voice recognition

with Microsoft Word

You could issue this command using a mouse, or you could use a micro-
phone and state:
"Format font Times New Roman OK"
• Dictation mode allows the user to dictate text directly into a Word doc-
ument. For example, consider the following sentence:
"The national economy showed rapid growth."
You could enter this text using a keyboard or you could use a microphone
and state:
“The national economy showed rapid growth”
MUSIC
Musical instrument digital interface or MIDI is a standard that allows
musical instruments to connect to the system unit using a special MIDI port.
MIDI devices are specialized musical instruments that provide input in the
form of encoded digital signals representing musical sounds. MIDI devices can
be used to create, record, and play back musical compositions. The most com-
monly used MIDI device is an electronic keyboard. Others include MIDI vio-
lins, guitars, and even cellos. (See Figure 2-20.)

Figure 2-20 Yamaha

q CONCEPT CHECK
MIDI Silent Cello
} Describe voice recognition systems.
} What is MIDI? What are some common MIDI devices?

WHAT IS OUTPUT?

Output is processed data or information. Text, graphics, audio, and video are
types of output. Output devices translate processed information into a form
humans can understand.

O utput is processed data or information. Output typically takes the form of text, graphics, photos,
audio, and/or video. For example, when you create a presentation using a presentation graphics
program, you typically input text and graphics. You could also include photographs and even add voice
narration. The output would be the completed presentation.
Output devices are any hardware used to provide or to create output. They translate information
that has been processed by the system unit into a form that humans can understand. There are a wide
range of output devices. The most widely used are monitors, printers, and audio-output.

Input and Output www.olearyseries.com 2-13

 MONITORS

Monitor features include resolution, dot pitch, refresh rate, and size. CRT and flat-panel are
types of monitors. E-books, data projectors, and HDTV are specialty monitors.

T he most frequently used output device is the monitor. Also known as display screens or simply
as screens, monitors present visual images of text and graphics. The output is often referred to as
soft copy. Monitors vary in size, shape, and cost. Almost all, however, have some basic distinguishing
features.

FEATURES
The most important characteristic of a monitor is its clarity. Clarity refers to the quality and sharpness
of the displayed images. It is a function of several monitor features, including reolution, dot pitch,
refresh rate, and size.
• Resolution is one of the most important features.
Images are formed on a monitor by a series of dots or
pixels (picture elements). (See Figure 2-21.)
Resolution is expressed as a matrix of these dots or
pixels. For example, many monitors today have a reso-
lution of 1,280 pixel columns by 1,024 pixel rows for a
total of 1,310,720 pixels. The higher a monitor’s reso-
lution (the more pixels) the clearer the image pro-
duced. See Figure 2-22 for the most common monitor
resolutions.
• Dot pitch is the distance between each pixel. Most
newermonitors have a dot pitch of .31 mm (31/100th
of a millimeter) or less. The lower the dot pitch (the
shorter the distance between pixels), the clearer the Figure 2-21 Monitor resolution
images produced.
• Refresh rate indicates how often a displayed image is updated
Standard pixels
or redrawn on the monitor. Most monitors operate at a rate of 75
hertz, which means that the monitor is redrawn 75 times each sec- SVGA 800 600
ond. Images displayed on monitors with refresh rates lower than
XGA 1,024 768
75 hertz appear to flicker and can cause eye strain. The faster the
refresh rate (the more frequently images are redrawn), the better SXGA 1,280 1,024
the quality of images displayed.
UXGA 1,600 1,200
• Size or viewable size is measured by the diagonal length of a
monitor’s viewing area. Common sizes are 15, 17, 19, and 21
inches. The smaller the monitor size the better the quality of Figure 2-22 Resolution standards
images displayed.
CATHODE-RAY TUBE
The most common type of monitor for the office and the home is the cathode ray tube (CRT). (See
Figure 2-23.) These monitors are typically placed directly on the system unit or on the desktop. CRTs are
similar in size and technology to televisions. Compared to other televisions. Compared to other types

2-14 CHAPTER 2
 of monitors, their primary advantages are low cost and excellent res-
On the Web Explorations olution. Their primary disadvantage is that they are bulky and occu-
Flat-panel monitors are quick- py a considerable amount of space on the desktop.
ly becoming the standard for
personal computers. To learn
FLAT-PANEL MONITOR
more about a leading manu- Because CRTs are too bulky to be transported easily, portable moni-
facturer in this industry, visit tors, known as flat-panel monitors, were developed. Flat-panel
our Web site at www.oleary- monitors are much thinner and require less power to operate than
series.com and select On the CRTs. These monitors are widely used with desktop, tablet PC, and
Web Explorations. handheld computers. (See Figure 2-24). There are two basic types of
flat-panel monitors: passive-matrix and active-matrix. Passive-
matrix, or dual-scan monitors,
create images by scanning the
entire screen. This type requires
very little power, but the clarity of
the images is not as sharp. Active-
matrix or thin film transistor
(TFT) monitors do not scan down
the screen; instead, each pixel is
independently activated. They can
display more colors with better
clarity. Active-matrix monitors are
more expensive and require more
power.

Figure 2-24 A flat-panel monitor

Figure 2-23 CRT monitor
OTHER MONITORS
There are several other types of monitors. These monitors are
used for more specialized applications, such as reading books,
making presentations, and watching television. Three of these
specialized devices are e-books, data projectors, and high-defi-
nition television.
• E-books, also known as e-book readers, are handheld,
book-sized devices that display text and graphics. Using
content downloaded from the Web or from special car-
tridges, these devices are used to read newspapers, maga-
zines, and entire books. (See Figure 2-25.)
• Data projectors are specialized devices similar to
slide projectors. These devices, however, connect to
microcomputers and project computer output just as
it would appear on a monitor. Data projectors are common-
ly used for presentations almost anywherefrom the class-
room to the boardroom.

Figure 2-25 E-book

Input and Output www.olearyseries.com 2-15

• High-definition television (HDTV) is a recent
development in the merger of microcomputers and
television, called PC/TV. HDTV delivers a much clear-
er and more detailed wide-screen picture than regu-
lar television. (See Figure 2-26.) Because the output is
digital, users can readily freeze video sequences to
create high-quality still images. The video and still
images can then be digitized, edited, and stored on
disk for later use. This technology is very useful to
graphic artists, designers, and publishers.
Figure 2-26 HDTV

q CONCEPT CHECK On the Web Explorations

HDTV is expected to be the stan-
} What is output? What are output devices?
dard in television broadcasting
} Define these monitor features: resolution, dot pitch, by 2006. To learn more about
refresh rate, and size. HDTV visit our Web site at
www.olearyseries.com
} Describe CRTs, flat-panel, and specialty monitors. and select On the Web
Explorations.

PRINTERS

Printer features include resolution, color capability, speed, and memory. Ink-jet, laser, and thermal are common
types of printers. Other types include dot-matrix, ploffer, photo, and portable.

Y ou probably use a printer with some frequency to print homework assignments, photographs, and
Web pages. Printers translate information that has been processed by the system unit and pres-
ent the information on paper. Printer output is often called hard copy.

FEATURES
There are many different types of printers. Almost all, however, have some basic distinguishing fea-
tures, including resolution, color capability, speed, and memory.
• Resolution for a printer is similar to monitor resolution. It is a measure of the clarity of images pro-
duced. Printer resolution, however, is measured in dpi (dots per inch). (See Figure 2-27.) Most
printers designed for personal use average 1,200 dpi. The higher the dpi, the better the quality of
images produced.
• Color capability is provided by most printers today. Users typically have the option to print either
with just black ink or with color. Because it is more expensive to print in color, most users select black
ink for letters, drafts, and homework. Color is used more selectively for final reports containing
graphics and for photographs.
• Speed is measured in the number of pages printed per minute. Typically, printers for personal use
average 15 to 19 pages per minute for single color (black) output and 13 to 15 pages per minute for
color output.

2-16 CHAPTER 2
 Figure 2-27 Dpi comparison

• Memory within a printer is used to store printing instructions and documents waiting to be printed.
The more memory in a printer, the faster it will be able to create large documents.

INK-JET PRINTER
Ink-jet printers spray ink at high speed onto the surface of
paper. This process not only produces a letter-quality image but
also permits printing to be done in a variety of colors making
them ideal for select special applications. (See Figure 2-28.) Ink-
jet printers are the most widely used printers. They are reliable,
quiet, and relatively inexpensive. The most costly aspect of ink-jet
printers is replacing the ink cartridges. For this reason, most users
specify black ink for the majority of print jobs and use the more
expensive color printing for select applications. Typical ink-jet
printers produce 17 to 19 pages per minute of black-only output
and 13 to 15 pages of color output.
LASER PRINTER
Figure 2-28 A special application The laser printer uses a technology similar to that used in a
ink-jet printer photocopying machine. Laser printers use a laser light beam to
produce images with excellent letter and graphics quality. More
expensive than ink-jet printers, laser printers are faster and are used in applications requiring high-
quality output. (See Figure 2-29.)

Do you find extra pages in the printer when you try to

TIPS print from the Web? Would you like to print your
On the Web Explorations favorite articles without all the ads and hyperlinks?
There are several ways to get what you want in a printout. Here
For fast high-quality print-
are a few suggestions you can use with Internet Explorer:
outs, laser printers are the
1 Preview. To see what will be printed, choose Print Preview
standard. To learn more
from the File menu. You can scroll through the pages
about a company that
and make sure the items you want will be printed.
makes laser printers, visit
2 Choose Printer Friendly. Many Web pages have a Printer
our Web site at
Friendly button that removes all the ads and sidebars. Look
www.olearyseries.com and for the button at the conclusion of most Web articles.
select On the Web 3 Print Selection. You can highlight and print only the text you
Explorations. would like to print. Highlight the text and graphics you
would like to print and choose File/Print and check the
Selection option under the Page range box.

Input and Output www.olearyseries.com 2-17

 There are two categories of laser printers. Personal laser print-
ers typically do not support color, are less expensive, and are used
by many single users. They typically can print 15 to 17 pages a
minute. Shared laser printers typically support color, are more
expensive, and are used (shared) by a group of users. Shared laser
printers typically print over 50 pages a minute.

THERMAL PRINTER
A thermal printer uses heat elements to produce images on heat-
sensitive paper. Originally these printers were only used in scientif-
ic labs to record data. More recently, color thermal printers have
been widely used to produce very high-quality color artwork and
text. Figure 2-29 A laser printer
Color thermal printers are not as popular
because of their cost and the requirement of special-
ly treated paper. They are special-use printers that
produce near-photographic output. They are widely
used in professional art and design work where very
high-quality color is essential.
OTHER PRINTERS
There are several other types of printers. These printers
include dot-matrix printers, chain printers, plotters,
photo printers, and portable printers:
• Dot-matrix printers form characters and
images using a series of small pins on a print
head. Once a widely used microcomputer print-
er, they are inexpensive and reliable but quite noisy. In general, they Figure 2-30 Photo printer
are used for tasks where high-quality output is not required.
• Plotters are special-purpose printers for producing a wide range of specialized output. Using out-
put from graphics tablets and other graphical input devices, plotters can create maps, images, and
architectural and engineering drawings. Plotters are widely used by graphic artists, engineers, and
architects to print out designs, sketches, and drawings.
• Photo printers are special-purpose printers designed to print photo-quality images from digital
cameras. (See Figure 2-30.) Most photo printers print 3" × 5" or 4" × 6" images on glossy, photo-
quality paper.
• Portable printers are usually small and lightweight printers designed to work with a notebook
computer. Portable printers may be ink-jet or laser printers, print in black and white or color, and
connect with USB or parallel port connections.

q CONCEPT CHECK
} Discuss these printer features: resolution, color capability, speed, and memory.
} What are the three printer types commonly used with microcomputers?
} Discuss dot-matrix, plotter, photo, and portable printers.

2-18 CHAPTER 2
 AUDIO-OUTPUT DEVICES
Audio-output devices produce sounds for people. Speakers and headphones are the most common types.

A udio-output devices translate audio information from the computer

into sounds that people can understand. The most widely used audio-
output devices are speakers and headphones. (See Figure 2-31) These
devices are connected to a sound card in the system unit. The sound card
is used to capture as well as play back recorded sounds. Audio-output
devices are used to play music, vocalize translations from one language to
another, and communicate information from the computer system to
users.
Creating voice output is not anywhere near as difficult as recognizing
and interpreting voice input. In fact, voice output is quite common. It is
used with many soft-drink machines, telephones, and cars. It is used as a
reinforcement tool for learning, such as to help students study a foreign
language. It is also used in many supermarkets at the checkout counter to
confirm purchases. One of its most powerful capabilities is to assist the
Figure 2-31 Headphones physically challenged.

COMBINATION INPUT AND OUTPUT DEVICES

Fax machines send and receive images over telephone lines. Multifunction devices have input
and output capabilities. Internet telephones use telephony to connect people. Dumb, intelli-
gent, network, or Internet are types of terminals.

On the Web Explorations M any devices combine input and output capabilities. ometimes
this is done to save space. Other times it is done for very special-
Multifunctional devices save ized applications. Common combination devices include fax
space and money, making machines, multifunction devices, Internet telephones, and terminals.
them a favorite in home FAX MACHINES
offices and small business- A fax machine, also known as a facsimile transmission machine, is
es. To learn more about a standard tool in nearly every office. At one time, all fax machines were
MFDs, visit our Web site at separate stand-alone devices for sending and receiving images over tele-
www.olearyseries.com and
phone lines. Now, most computer systems have that capability with the
select On the Web
simple addition of a fax/modem board. To send a fax, these devices scan
Explorations.
the image of a document converting the light and dark areas into a for-
mat that can be sent electronically over standard telephone lines. To receive a fax, these devices reverse
the process and print the document (or display the document on your monitor) using signals received from
the telephone line.
MULTIFUNCTION DEVICES
Multifunctional devices (MFD), also known as all in one (AIO) devices, typically combine the capa-
bilities of a scanner, printer, fax, and copy machine. These multifunctional devices offer a cost and
space advantage. They cost about the same as a good printer or copy machine but require much less

Input and Output www.olearyseries.com 2-19

space than the single-function devices they replace. Their disadvantage is that the quality and function-
ality are not quite as good as those of the separate singlepurpose devices. Even so, multifunctional
devices are widely used in home and small business offices.

INTERNET TELEPHONE
Internet telephones are specialized input and output devices for receiving and sending voice com-
munication. Typically, these devices connect to the system unit through a USB port and operate much
like a traditional telephone.
Telephony is the transmission of telephone calls over computer networks. Also known as Internet
telephony, IP telephony, and Voice-over IP (VoIP), telephony uses the Internet rather than tradi-
tional communication lines to support voice communication. To place telephone calls using telephony
requires a high speed Internet connection and special software and/or hardware. The three most pop-
ular approaches are:
• Computer-to-computer communications allow individuals to place free long-distance calls. This
application requires that both parties have a computer and that their computers are on and connect-
ed to the Internet when a call is placed. The required software is available from a variety of sources
for free or at very low cost. MSN Explorer is one of the most widely used.
• Computer-to-traditional telephone communications allow a user to call almost any traditional
telephone from his or her computer. Only he person making the call needs to have a computer con-
nected to he Internet. The calling party subscribes to a special Internet phone service provider that
supplies the required software and charges a small monthly and/or per-minute fee. To see how this
works, consult your Computing Essentials CD or visit our Web site at www.olearyseries.com and
select Animations.
• Traditional telephone-to-traditional telephone communications do not require a computer.
The calling party subscribes to a special Internet phone service provider that supplies a special hard-
ware adapter that connects a traditional telephone to the Internet. The cost for this service is simi-
lar to the computer-to-traditional telephone approach.
Compared to traditional telephone calls, Internet supported calls may have a lower
sound quality. However, most users report that this difference is not significant.
Telephony promises to dramatically impact the telecommunications industry and to
reduce our costs for telephone communications.

TERMINALS
A terminal is an input and output device that connects you to a mainframe or other type of comput-
er called a host computer or server. There are four kinds of terminals:
• A dumb terminal can be used to input and receive data, but it cannot process data independently.
It is used to gain access and to send information to a computer.
Such a terminal is often used by airline reservation clerks to
access a mainframe computer for flight information. (See Figure
2-32.)
• Essentially, an intelligent terminal is a microcomputer with
communications software and a telephone hookup (modem) or
other communications link. These connect the terminal to the
larger computer or to the Internet. An increasingly popular type
Figure 2-32 Dumb terminal

2-20 CHAPTER 2
 is the Net PC, also known as the Net Personal Computer. These low-cost and limit-
ed microcomputers typically have only one type of secondary storage (an internal hard
disk drive), a sealed system unit, and no expansion slots.
• A network terminal, also known as a thin client or network computer, is a low-
cost alternative to an intelligent terminal. Most network terminals do not have a hard-
disk drive and must rely on a host computer or server for application and system soft-
ware. These devices are becoming increasingly popular in many organizations.
• An Internet terminal, also known as a Web terminal or Web appliance, provides
access to the Internet and typically displays Web pages on a standard television set.
These special-purpose terminals offer Internet access without a microcomputer. Unlike
the other types of terminals, Internet terminals are used almost exclusively in the
home.

q CONCEPT CHECK
} What are the two most widely used audio-output devices?
} Describe the three most popular Internet telephony approaches.
} Describe the following combination devices: fax machine, MFD, Internet
telephone, and terminal.

Input and Output www.olearyseries.com 2-21

 A Look to the Future
Electronic Translators May Be in needing to communicate with non-English-
speaking civilians to settle disputes and maintain
Your Future
order.
Have you ever wished you could speak more than
Despite the achievements of interact and
one language fluently? What if you could speak
other hardware, several challenges remain that
hundreds of languages
translation hardware. Current
instantly? Would you like
translation are labor intensive;
to have your own per-
they require linguists and pro-
sonal interpreter to
grammers to create large lists
accompany you whenever
of words and their correspon-
you traveled to a foreign
ding meanings. Unfortunately,
country? What if you
computers have a difficult time
could take a picture of a
understanding idioms, such as
foreign road sign or
"It is raining cats and dogs."
restaurant menu and
They may also have difficulty
have it immediately
correctly identifying words by
translated for you?
their context. For example, the
Technology called elec-
sentences "The refrigerator is
tronic interpretation may
cool" and "The Fonz is cool"
soon exist to do all of
use the same word, cool, but it
these things. The military
has a very different meaning in
and private sector are
each sentence. Entrepreneurs
funding a variety of
in New York City may have a
research projects on elec-
solution to these problems
tronic interpreters, and
with the E1iMT project. instead
the commercial opportu-
of translating from word to
nities are enormous. The
word, E1iMT compares books
worldwide translation
that have been translated in
services market is already a $5 billion a year
different languages, looking for sentence frag-
industry and is expected to grow to $7.6 billion
ment patterns. By comparing sentence frag-
by 2006.
ments, it is hoped that translation programs will
Prototype portable handheld electronic inter-
be able to identify word groupings and translate
preters are currently in a testing phase at the U.S.
them into another language's comparable word
Office of Naval Research. in fact, it is expected
grouping, essentially translating concepts instead
that these devices will be widely used within the
of individual words.
next year. The company SpeechGear has devel-
What are the uses for such a device? Will the
oped a machine called interact that takes verbal
average person want or need an electronic trans-
statements in one language, converts the state-
lator? What type of professions and professionals
ments to text, translates that text to another lan-
will use them? What industries would benefit
guage, and then vocalizes the translated text.
most from electronic translators? How could you
And it does all this in two seconds! The military is
use this technology?
particularly interested in electronic interpreters
as they focus on peacekeeping objectives. More
than ever before, U.S. soldiers find themselves

2-22 CHAPTER 2
 SECONDARY STORAGE

COMPETENCIES
After you have read this chapter, you should be able to:
1 Distinguish between primary and secondary storage.
2 Describe the traditional floppy disk and compare it to high capacity floppy disks.
3 Compare internal hard disks, hard-disk cartridges, and hard-disk packs.
4 Describe ways to improve hard-disk operations, including disk caching, redundant
arrays of inexpensive disks, and data compression and decompression.
5 Discuss the different types of optical disks.
6 Describe solid-state storage, Internet drives, and magnetic tape.
7 Discuss mass storage and mass storage devices.

CONTENTS
Storage 3-3 Other Types of Secondary
Storage 3-12
Floopy Disks 3-3
Mass Storage Devices 3-16
Hard Disks 3-6
Optical Disks 3-10
CHAPTER 3
S econdary storage devices are used to save, to back
up, and even to transport files consisting of data
Secondary storage devices have always been an
indispensable element in any computer system.
or programs from one location or computer to They have similarities to output and input devices.
another. Not long ago, almost all files contained Like output devices, secondary storage devices
only numbers and letters. The demands for saving receive information from the system unit in the
these files were easily met with low capacity flop- form of the machine language of 0s and 1s. Rather
py and hard-disk drives. For example, to save a than translating the information, however, second-
100-page research paper might require 400 KB of ary storage devices save the information in
storage, which easily fits onto a single floppy disk. machine language for later use. Like input devices,
In the past five years, however, secondary stor- secondary storage devices send information to the
age devices have been required to service much system unit for processing. However, the informa-
greater demands. Data storage has expanded from tion, since it is already in machine form, does not
text and numeric files to include digital music files,
need to be translated. it is sent directly to memory
photographic files, video files, and much more.
(RAM), where it can be accessed and processed by
These new types of files require secondary storage
the CPU.
devices that have much greater capacity. For exam-
Competent end users need to be aware of the
ple, a 10-minute video might require 100 MB of
different types of secondary storage. They need to
storage.
Today's secondary storage devices are routinely know the capabilities, limitations, and uses of flop-
used for a variety of tasks that were impossible just py disks, hard disks, optical disks, and other types of
a few years ago. CDs and DVDs, for example, store secondary storage. Additionally, they need to be
data that can be used over and over again. You can aware of specialty storage devices for portable
download music from the Internet, play it on your computers and to be knowledgeable about how
computer, and create custom CDs with the right large organizations manage their extensive data
hardware and software. resources.
 STORAGE
Primary storage is volatile. Secondary storage is nonvolatile. Important stor-
age characteristics include media, capacity, storage devices, and access speed.

A n essential feature of every computer is the ability to save, or store, information. Random-access
memory (RAM) holds or stores data and programs that the CPU is presently processing. Before data
can be processed or a program can be run, it must be in RAM. For this reason, RAM is sometimes
referred to as primary storage.
Unfortunately, most RAM provides only temporary or volatile storage. That is, it loses all of its con-
tents as soon as the computer is turned off. Its contents are also lost if there is a power failure that dis-
rupts the electric current going into the system unit. This volatility results in a need for more perma-
nent or nonvolatile storage for data and programs.
We also need external storage because users need
much more storage capacity than is typically available
in a computer's primary or RAM memory.
Secondary storage provides permanent or non-
volatile storage. Using secondary storage devices,
such as a floppy disk drive, data and programs can be
retained after the computer has been shut off. This is
accomplished by writing files to and reading files from
secondary storage devices. Writing is the process of
saving information to the secondary storage device.
Reading is the process of accessing information from
Figure 3-1 Secondary storage secondary storage. This chapter focuses on secondary storage
media
devices.
Some important characteristics of secondary storage include:
• Media or medium, which is the actual physical material that holds the data and programs. (See Figure 3-1.)
• Capacity measures how much a partiular storage medium can hold.
• Storage devices are hardware that read data and programs from the medium. Most also write
to the medium.
• Access speed or access time measures the amount of time required by the storage device to
retrieve data and programs.
Most desktop microcomputer systems have floppy, hard, and optical disk drives.

FLOPPY DISKS
Floppy disks are removable storage media. The traditional floppy disk is 1.44 MB. Data is
recorded on tracks and sectors. Zip, SuperDisk, and HiFD are high capacity floppy disks.

F loppy disks, often called diskettes or simply disks, are portable or removable storage media.
They are typically used to store and transport word processing, spreadsheet, and other types of
files. They use flat circular pieces of Mylar plastic that have been coated with a magnetic material.
Floppy disk drives (FDD) store data and programs by altering the electromagnetic charges on the

Secondary Storage www.olearyseries.com 3-3

disk's surface to represent 1s and 0s. Floppy disk drives
retrieve data and programs by reading these charges
from the magnetic disk. Characters are represented by
positive (+) and negative (–) charges using the ASCII,
EBCDIC, or Unicode binary codes. For example, the number
3 would require a series of 8 charges. (See Figure 3-2.)
Floppy disks are also called flexible disks and flop-
pies. This is because the plastic disk inside the diskette
cover is flexible, not rigid. There are several types of flop-
py disks with different capacities ranging from the tradi-
tional floppy disk to a variety of high capacity floppy disks.

TRADITIONAL FLOPPY DISK

The traditional floppy disk is the 1.44 MB 3½-inch disk.
(See Figure 3-3.) Although introduced over 20 years ago, Figure 3-2 How charges on a disk surface
they are still in used. The most common type is labelled store the number 3
2HD, which means "two-sided, high-density." Two-sided
indicates that data can be stored on both sides of the disk. Density
refers to how tightly the bits (electromagnetic charges) can be packed
next to one another. These disks have a capacity of 1.44 megabytes-the
equivalent of over 350 typewritten pages.
Floppy disks have a thin exterior jacket made of hard plastic to pro-
tect the flexible disk inside. (See Figure 3-4.) A shutter on the disk slides
to the side to expose the recording surface. Labels provide users with
an area to write or document the contents of the disk. The write-pro-
tection notch has a slide that opens and closes. In either position, files
Figure 3-3 A 1.44 MB 3½-inch
can be read from the floppy disk. When the notch is closed, files can be
floppy disk
saved to the disk. If you save a file with the same name as a file already
on the disk, the original file is lost. As a protection against accidentally
losing important files, the write-protection notch can be set to the open
position as shown in Figure 3-4. In this position, files cannot be saved to
the floppy disk.
Files are stored and organized on the
flexible disk according to tracks and sec-
tors. Tracks are rings of concentric circles
without visible grooves. Each track is
divided into invisible wedge-shaped sec-
tions called sectors. Each track's sector
can store up to 512 bytes or characters.
To see how a floppy disk drive works,
consult your Computing Essentials CD
or visit our Web site at
www.olearyseries.com and select
Animations.

Figure 3-4 The parts of a

3½-inch floppy disk

3-4 CHAPTER 3
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
mostly by Irish agitators. This ill feeling prevented the close co-
operation between the two greatest sections of the English-speaking
races, which would have meant so much for world peace and
harmony, and which would have laid the basis for a closer co-
operation of all the nations of predominant Nordic stock, in the
interest of the progressive evolution of mankind. A first object of
statesmanship should now be to regain that solidarity of the Nordics,
in the interests not merely of world progress, but of the very survival
of civilization.
Denominational questions in the United States were scarcely an
issue after the Revolution, for the bitter sectarian feeling that had
existed earlier was rapidly disappearing, and the Roman Catholics
had not yet been able to raise the issue of bigotry, for the country
was overwhelmingly Protestant. Of approximately 4,000,000 persons
in the United States in 1790, Catholic writers make varying claims
running as high as 35,000 or 45,000 persons of their faith. Without
stopping to inquire how many of those claimed for Rome were
merely nominal adherents, and how many were Negroes, one may
remark that at the most, about one American in each one hundred
might have had some affiliation with the Roman Church. When the
Catholic hierarchy was established for the first time in the United
States by the appointment of the Jesuit John Carroll as bishop of
Baltimore in 1789, he reported to his superiors that there were
about 16,000 Catholics in Maryland, including children and Negroes;
something over 7000 in Pennsylvania, some 3000 French around
Detroit, and about 4000 scattered through the rest of the country. To
this total of 30,000 might be added the unknown but small number
of nominal Catholics on the frontier, in the Mississippi Valley, and in
other regions where there were no priests to minister to them, and
where their children, at least, were fairly sure to grow up outside the
church. It is probably accurate to say that there never has been a
nation which was so completely and definitely Protestant as well as
Nordic as was the United States just after the American Revolution.
The total white population found in the United States by the first
census (1790) was 3,172,444. To this should be added, for the
present purpose, the population of parts of the continent that are
now, but were not then, in the United States, that is Louisiana and
Florida. The latter had but a few thousand inhabitants. The
Louisiana Purchase territory may be credited with 36,000, of whom
nearly one-half were Negroes. The French are estimated at about
12,000. Professor Hansen gives the figure of Whites only for the
Louisiana Purchase area in 1790 as 20,000. The addition of Negroes
would probably increase these population figures considerably. Texas
may be allotted 5000 (Spanish) Whites, New Mexico and Arizona
15,000, and California 1000 at this period. But it will be shown later
that the use of the word "White" in these Spanish-American lands is
frequently largely a "courtesy title." Finally, the census enumerators
did not reach the Old Northwest Territory, where there were already
some 11,000 residents, about equally divided between American and
French. The total white population of the territory now comprised in
the continental United States may therefore be put at approximately
3,250,000 in 1790.
Disregarding the French and Spanish in the outlying regions, the
only race, aside from the Nordic, that was important enough to be
counted at this period was the Alpine, represented by the Germans.
In Maine one in a hundred of the population might have been
German, but in the other New England states the Alpines were
negligible.[9] In the middle colonies they were an important element,
perhaps one in every ten or twelve in such States as New York, New
Jersey, and Maryland, and one-third of the whole population in
Pennsylvania. Through the Southern States they formed perhaps one
in twenty of the population, confined mainly to the upland regions
and, having spread over from these uplands and from Pennsylvania
into the west, they amounted to about one in seven in Kentucky and
Tennessee.
Nine-tenths of the whole white population of 1790 was therefore
Nordic in race, and ninety-nine hundredths of it Protestant in
religion. It was all English-speaking, save for the little island of
Pennsylvania Dutch, and for the French and Spanish on the frontiers.
It was all living under a political and cultural tradition that was
characteristically British.
At the time of the Revolution there were about 6,000,000 people in
England and about half that number in the colonies.

The preceding pages have been devoted to describing the conditions

in the English colonies at the end of the Colonial Period. Let us now
consider the situation of the continent as a whole.
Never before in the history of the Nordic race had there been an
event comparable in importance to this occupation of North America,
north of the Rio Grande, by the English and Scotch. The Canadian
French were too few to be a serious obstacle to the development of
the country and, as will be seen in the following pages, the rest of
Canada was in race, language, religion, and cultural traditions
identical with the original British colonies.
Thus we have the most vigorous race in existence, with a few
outside elements which were entirely in sympathy with the dominant
type, in possession of the richest and most salubrious continent in
the world. That this country was healthy and well fitted to breed a
highly selected race is shown by the comparison of the fate of the
colonists who went to the West Indies with those who went to New
England.
These Puritan migrations were in their general nature identical, but
the enervating climate of the Caribbean Sea proved fatal to the
Nordics who went there, while the vigor of the New Englanders as a
body was increased by the elimination of weaklings through a harsh
but beneficent climate.
To appreciate how highly selected a race the Americans were at that
time, one has only to consider the extraordinary group of men of
talent and ability, some fifty-five in number, who represented the
colonies at the Convention of 1787 at Philadelphia. Those men
framed the Constitution of the United States, which after a hundred
and fifty years of stress and strain still remains the model for such
documents throughout the world.
Let the reader consider whether our 110,000,000 whites of today
could produce the same number of men with corresponding ability
and equally high motive, in spite of the fact that our population is
more than thirty times as large as in 1787.
So we find in 1790 a practically empty continent, its eastern half
buried under a mantle of forest, with a coast line broken by ports
and short navigable rivers. Across low mountain ranges we first find
a vast central valley traversed for hundreds of miles by wide rivers;
then a belt of treeless plains covered with succulent buffalo grass;
next a region long called the "Great American Desert"; then a range
of mountains dimly known to the Colonials as the "Stony
Mountains"; beyond them a great alkaline desert, next the Sierra
range, and lastly the genial Pacific Coast. The western half of the
continent abounded in mineral wealth, while in the central valley the
virgin soil awaited the plow. These conditions had their counterpart
in Canada. Wild game abounded, inviting the fur traders to explore
the remoter places and enabling the settler to find ready food, while
he built his log cabin and planted his crop.
Such was the continent and such the opportunity. In the following
pages we shall see what has been done with these opportunities by
the British race.

Before leaving the Colonial Period, it is well to call attention, once

more, to the history of the frontier. For a hundred years and more
the frontier was beset by savages often instigated by the French in
Canada. The Indians killed and tortured the lonely settlers and
burned their log cabins. This desultory warfare cost the English
many hundreds, if not thousands of lives along the frontiers of New
England as well as of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The Indians found by English settlers on their arrival in America were
probably, as to many of their tribes, the most formidable fighting
men of any native race encountered by the Whites. Not only were
they redoubtable warriors in their own surroundings, but they were
beyond question the cruelest of mankind. The Assyrians, of all
ancient peoples, were reputed to be the most fiendishly cruel, but
bad as they were, they did not compare with the American Indian.
The details of the torture of prisoners taken in open warfare are too
revolting to describe. These tortures were carried out by the squaws
while the bucks sat around and laughed at the agony of their
victims. There is nothing like it in history in any part of the world
and the result was that the aboriginal Indians were regarded as
ravening wolves or worse and deprived of all sympathy, while the
Whites stole their lands and killed their game. No one who knew the
true nature of the Indian felt any regret that they were driven off
their hunting grounds. This attitude was found wherever the Whites
came in conflict with them and explains why they were scarcely
regarded as human beings.
The effect of the existence of the Indians on the frontier was to slow
down the advance westward of the settlements and to compel the
backwoodsman to keep in touch with his countrymen in the rear. If
there had been no hostile Indians, the settlers would have scattered
widely and would have established independent communities, such
as were attempted in Kentucky and Tennessee after the Revolution.
In this respect the Indians were a benefit to the Whites.
At the close of the period ending in 1790, despite the loss of many
valuable elements at the time of the Revolution, the American race
was homogeneous and Scotch and English to the core. It was
bursting the bonds of the old frontier and ready to pour a human
deluge over the mountains and inundate the West.

FOOTNOTES:
 [9] Studying the percentage of various nationalities in Colonial
times, and later, one is guided partly by records of immigration,
partly by the names of the inhabitants, as recorded in census and
other returns. There was always a tendency, in an Anglo-Saxon
region, to corrupt names of other nationalities, occasionally in
such a way as to make them appear English. This fact must be
allowed for in all calculations in this field.

VIII
THE OLD NORTHWEST TERRITORY
The second period to be dealt with covers the years from the first
census, 1790, to the eve of the Civil War, 1860, and deals with the
organization of our government and the extension of settlement
westward to the Pacific. Free land and a very high birthrate among
native Americans led to a great increase of the population, so that
the white inhabitants of the United States, about three millions and
a quarter in 1790, became twenty-seven millions and a half, in 1860,
though immigration during the seventy-year period was not over
four and a quarter million.
From 1790 to 1820, no official record of immigrant arrivals was kept.
Thousands certainly arrived during those thirty years, but it seems
probable that they were nearly all English and Scotch.
Just as the termination in 1790 of the preceding period was marked
by a racial loss, caused by the expulsion of the Loyalists, so this later
period was terminated by an internecine Civil War, costing the
country three-fourths of a million Nordic lives, counting killed and
died of wounds only. The descendants of those men who gave their
lives for their country on both sides would have filled up the West,
instead of its being largely populated by the immigrants we
recklessly invited to our shores.
During the period referred to (1790-1860), there was, as said, no
heavy immigration except from two sources, Ireland and Germany,
and both of these occurred in the later portion of the period.
The displacement of agriculture by sheep in Scotland at the
beginning of the nineteenth century dispossessed thousands of
farmers who moved to America, sometimes with the active
assistance of their landlords. The population of some districts, as
Perthshire, Argyllshire, and Inverness-shire, fell sharply, because the
people, no longer able to make a living, moved away. North America
was the favorite destination.
Southern England experienced a similar movement. The price of
agricultural products, which had been forced up during the
Napoleonic wars, fell steadily for a long time. Farmers could not
make a living. The counties of Kent, Hampshire, Somerset, and
Surrey were the chief centers of emigration. These people also
turned their faces toward North America.
Ireland, too, was in perpetual ferment and the emigration from that
island was increased as the result of the abortive revolutionary
attempts of the United Irishmen in 1798 and 1803. After the leader
of the latter, Robert Emmet, was executed, his elder brother, Thomas
A. Emmet, came to New York, practised law, and within a decade
became the attorney-general of the state. The Emmets, like most
others of these Irish refugees, were Protestants in religion.
Later, in 1845, the potato crop failed in Ireland, and soon after the
starving peasantry, many of them from the lower types of western
Ireland, swarmed over here. The women became domestic servants
and the men day laborers, doing the heavy work of ditch digging
and railroad building. They were Roman Catholic and that fact
excited animosity in many sections of the country. They were not
welcome in the West when they drifted there. It was not unusual to
see on the frontier railroad stations and in advertisements in New
York newspapers, "No Irish need apply." There was some violence
and an American party was organized to check their entrance into
local politics, for which they showed great aptitude.
Since then, these Irish have been forced upward in the social scale
by later arriving immigrants over whom they had the advantage of
speaking English. They became the nucleus in America of the
present Roman Catholic Church, which has spread rapidly in this
country. The Irish did not take to agriculture and have never shown
much liking for the larger industries.
The total number of Irish immigrants during the forties and fifties
amounted to more than a million and a half, and that first migration
has been followed by a continuous stream of southern Irish down to
the last few years when the quota restrictions went into effect.

ROMAN CATHOLICS
1930
As soon as they secured a certain amount of wealth and rose in the
social scale, they established schools and colleges of their own, the
teachings and, indeed, the existence of which conflict with those of
the public-school system of the United States, and to that extent
they have impaired the unity of the nation. Some regiments of Irish
fought on the Northern side in the Civil War, but the draft riots of
New York were caused by the Irish who did not want to fight for the
Union. In addition to the shanty Irish there came over some middle-
class families of importance.
The second immigration of importance occurred a few years later
when a large number of Germans were forced over here by the
failure of the Revolution in Germany in 1848. These Germans were
very different from those who migrated to Pennsylvania in the
eighteenth century. Many of them were from northern Germany and
were Nordics, including individuals of some culture and distinction.
They settled in certain cities of the West, notably in Cincinnati,
Milwaukee, and Saint Louis. For the most part, however, they took
up public land and became hard-working farmers. They did not in
the mass improve the population already here intellectually, racially,
or physically, and they impaired our national unity, at least for the
time being, by the introduction of their own language.
At the end of the period here considered there were in the United
States more than one and a quarter millions of German-born, of
whom about one-fourth were Roman Catholics. This church, which in
1790 controlled not one in a hundred of the population, could in
1860 count upon one in every nine of the Whites.
Outside of the Irish and Germans, who were preponderantly Nordic,
there was not much immigration of importance. The census of 1860
enumerated 4,138,697 foreign-born persons out of a total of nearly
27,000,000 Whites. England, Scotland, and Canada accounted for
most of those who were neither Irish nor German. Thus at the end
of this period the racial unity of the United States was still virtually
unimpaired.
The French in the old Northwest Territory were negligible in number,
amounting to but a few thousands. The number of Mexicans in
Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico when we took over those countries
was but a few thousand more. These Mexicans considered
themselves Spanish; but as a matter of fact, the veneer of religion,
language, and culture was very thin, and racially most of them were
at least seven-eighths Indian. The same condition prevailed in
California in 1846; the number of Mexicans being even smaller than
in Texas.
Many of the original Colonial charters granted by the English kings
provided for a north and south boundary by latitude, but the
western boundary was often defined as the "South Sea," and not
unnaturally many of these boundaries overlapped. After the
Revolution, the original colonies were induced to cede to the Federal
Government their indefinite and conflicting claims to the western
lands. This general and important cession of territory had two
results: it gave the impoverished Federal Government lands which
could be sold for its own benefit, and it led to the establishment of
communities which looked to the Federal Government for everything
they needed, which in itself was a long step toward unity of
government.
In 1787 the western boundaries of New York and Pennsylvania were
fixed as they are at present, and out of the country south of the
Great Lakes, north of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi was
erected the Northwest Territory under the special guardianship of
the Federal Government.
This "Northwest Territory" had been seized during the Revolution by
an extraordinary group of adventurers and frontiersmen under
General George Rogers Clark. Thereby the Thirteen Colonies were in
physical possession of these districts south of the Great Lakes when
the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783. Without such actual
possession of the Old Northwest, it would have remained part of
Canada, an outcome which would have limited the growth of the
United States westward or, more probably, have led to another war.
The reluctance of the British authorities in charge of the outposts in
this territory to surrender their forts in accordance with the terms of
the treaty, and their alleged backing of the Indians, were among the
causes underlying the War of 1812.
As population increased, new States were created in succession out
of this territory—Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818),
Michigan (1837), and Wisconsin (1848).
Ohio's first straggling settlers had pushed northwesterly across the
Ohio River during the Revolution, but the first real, permanent
settlement was by the New England Company which established
Marietta in 1788. This New England immigration, though soon
swamped by that from other States, played an important part in the
organization of the territory and in the shaping of its future policies.
Scarcely had the Massachusetts group, led by General Rufus
Putnam, taken possession of its vast grant around Marietta, when a
new group led by Judge J.C. Symmes of Kentucky occupied a grant
of a million acres between the Great and Little Miami Rivers,
including the sites of Cincinnati, Dayton, and many of the most
important of the early settlements of the territory.
Virginia had reserved a military district of more than four million
acres to reward its soldiers of the Revolution, and this quickly began
to be settled largely by veterans from Kentucky which was at that
time, it will be remembered, still a part of Virginia.
Connecticut on the other hand had stipulated for its own Western
Reserve of nearly 3,000,000 acres, extending in an oblong, 120
miles, from the boundary of Pennsylvania along Lake Erie, and the
settlement of Cleveland marked its nucleus.
Thus Ohio, within a few years after the Revolution, started with four
different growing points. The Virginia element increased the most
rapidly, partly because of its proximity to Kentucky, partly because of
its easy access by the Ohio River, so that the English and Ulster
Scots of the southern part of the State soon dominated the whole.
A similar element was continually coming across the Pennsylvania
border from the Monongahela country, and before long the
Pennsylvania emigration to Ohio became the greatest from any one
State, filling up the central part which comprised the great wheat
belt. Even as late as the Mexican War, one-fourth of the members of
the Ohio Legislature were natives of Pennsylvania, exceeding the
members born in any other State, or in all the New England States
combined, or in Ohio itself.
Through Kentucky came not merely Virginians but a steady stream
of Ulster Scots from North Carolina, many of whom, however, had
previously been Virginians. The southern parts of the State,
therefore, took on some of the complexion of the slave-holding
States, while the northern part was tinged by the culture of New
England and the Central States, many coming in from western New
York, which from the present point of view is to be regarded as
merely an extension of New England.
Thus for a score of years the population of the States to the south
and east of Ohio, which, dammed back by hostile Indians, had been
ready to overflow for some time, poured into the new territory. Then
the flood slackened until after the close of the War of 1812, when it
was renewed with vigor. Men from all parts of the United States who
had served with the western and northern forces in the War of 1812
had seen the beauties of the new country and determined to settle
there as soon as peace was declared and they could dispose of their
holdings at home. So far as New England was concerned this
tendency was accentuated by two remarkably cold winters in 1816
and 1817, which surpassed the memories of the oldest inhabitants.
General economic and social conditions were favorable for a
widespread movement of population. The northwestern part of Ohio
had been cleared of Indians and was then thrown open to
settlement.
This second great flood of immigration into Ohio was in general of
the same character as the first, bringing into the State from all sides
an almost purely Nordic population of British ancestry, except for the
small element of Pennsylvania Dutch who for a while kept much to
themselves, maintained their own customs and their own language,
and thus cut themselves off largely from the march of progress.
Their Alemannish dialect was rapidly becoming almost as far out of
line with the literary language of Germany as it was with the English
language of their adopted home.
Later Ohio received a quarter of a million of German and Irish
immigrants. But of the 2,339,511 inhabitants whom the State
contained in 1860, a million and a half were born in the State itself.

Indiana, a typical American State, owes nothing worth mentioning to

the original French population. In early days it must be considered
little more than an extension of Kentucky. Virginia had set aside a
large tract for rewarding the men of George Rogers Clark's
expedition and these were the original land agents, so to speak, for
the territory. But all along the border a frontier population drifted
there across the Ohio River. As late as 1850 there were twice as
many Southern people in Indiana as there were from the Middle
States and New England put together. A good share of these were
from Kentucky, which means that they or their parents were
previously from Virginia or North Carolina.
That Indiana was in sympathy a Northern State bears testimony to
the fact that these migrants had little in common except original
racial stock with the older slave-holding population. The Ulster Scots
were the largest element, although there were also many Quakers
from North and South Carolina, some of whom were of Huguenot
descent. It was this element which made of Indiana a principal route
of the "Underground Railroad," as the system of smuggling runaway
slaves out of the slave States was called. But in the southern part of
the State there was much sympathy with the slaveholders.
The settlement of Indiana falls almost entirely in the nineteenth
century, the number of people there prior to 1800 being negligible
and confined for the most part to lands under the protection of the
little post of Vincennes. On the northerly side of the Ohio River, at
the Falls, the settlement of the tract of 149,000 acres, which Virginia
had conveyed in 1786 to General Clark and his soldiers, was well
under way.
The rapid settlement of Indiana was a part of the great westward
movement beginning with the panic of 1819, and the hard times that
followed. The price of cotton was steadily declining in the South and
it was easy for the poorer farmer heavily in debt to sell out or simply
pack up and quit, moving on to free and richer land in a new
country. Many of the Ulster Scots in the South were hostile to
slavery, while others of them, strongly Jacksonian in politics, were
opposed to nullification and shared the reputed death-bed regret of
the hero of New Orleans that he had not hanged John C. Calhoun.
South Carolina therefore sent a large contingent of Ulster Scots to
the new territory, in addition to the general immigration which has
already been mentioned.
The Southern stream was met in the old Northwest Territory by the
stream of New Englanders coming over the line of the Erie Canal
after crossing the Hudson at the great break in the highlands near
Albany. Many of the settlers of northern Indiana had tarried for a
season in Ohio and moved westward as they had a chance to
harvest the unearned increment by selling their farms at a profit and
migrating to take up cheaper land and start again.
Indiana missed the main flood of foreign immigration in the
generation before the Civil War. The Germans were going elsewhere
because of clannishness, while the Irish avoided Indiana because of
its lack of great cities. By the time the Scandinavian flood began to
come in, land values in Indiana were already high and the new
settlers went farther west and north.
Indiana, therefore, of the States in the Northwest Territory is the
most nearly Nordic in population and the most nearly American, and,
at the end of the period under consideration, it represented an
overwhelmingly native-born population originating, in not very
unequal parts, from the Northern and Southern States, respectively.
Though the foreign element was rapidly gaining ground, it had not
begun to make itself felt even as late as 1833 when northern
Indiana was a wilderness, while southern Indiana was already well
peopled from Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas.
The development of internal improvements together with the
general migration from Northern States to all points west brought a
complete change in the political complexion of the State. In 1836,
alone, land sales in Indiana amounted to 3,000,000 acres and in the
decade from 1840 to 1850 the population of counties bordering the
new Ohio canal increased 400 per cent, while the State began to
look to New York as an outlet for its products rather than to New
Orleans.
From 1820, the date of the founding of Indianapolis, to 1860,
Indiana had twice quadrupled her population and from almost purely
American stock. During these forty years, it is calculated that a
million people came to the Northwest from the slave States of the
South. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Indiana had a population of
1,350,000 of which only about one in eleven was foreign-born. More
than half of the aliens were from Germany, and Indiana seems to
have attracted particularly the Nordic element, since Prussia
contributed the largest quota. Ireland was represented by only
24,000 persons at that time and like the smaller French and English
groups, they were scattered through the State and soon became lost
in the general mass.
This distinctive character of Indiana, almost purely American,
Protestant, and Nordic in 1860, gives the key to much of its history
since then. As elsewhere the immediate surrounding States had
contributed the bulk of the population. The census returns showed
that the ten States constituting the birthplace of the largest number
of Hoosiers in that year were, in order of importance: Ohio,
Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois. So far as the New
England element was represented, it had come almost wholly
through other States.
Illinois, like Ohio, had attracted a few settlers before the Revolution,
mainly to the neighborhood of the half-dozen little French trading
posts. The French population of this district had never been large,
and when it was taken over by Great Britain in 1763, most of the
French inhabitants who could get away hastened to do so, either
returning to Canada or going down the river to Saint Louis or New
Orleans.
With the withdrawal of the little French garrisons only a few hundred
persons of French ancestry were left in the territory. These were of
two different origins. Part had come down from Canada and
represented the "Habitant" French, who were largely Alpine. The
remainder had come up the river from New Orleans and represented
a more heterogeneous and probably inferior group. Some of the
Canadians brought their families; but for the most part the French
element was made up of single men who formed loose alliances with
Indian squaws. For these various reasons the French influence on
the subsequent population of the region is too negligible to justify
consideration.
The raid made by the Kentuckians under George Rogers Clark during
the Revolution had given the Americans a more detailed knowledge
of this region, and by 1800 several thousand of them had already
drifted across the border and started settlements. This immigration
increased up to the outbreak of Indian hostilities in 1811 followed by
the War of 1812 which almost completely checked settlement along
the old western frontier.
After the declaration of peace and the opening up of land sales in
1814 and 1816, Illinois began to have a real boom. By this time the
choicest locations in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky had either been
taken by settlers or bought by speculators, so that the new arrival
looking for a bonanza turned to Illinois or Missouri.
Following the general rule of migration in the United States, which
was not broken until the gold rush to California in 1849 introduced
new conditions, the settlement of Illinois was mostly from the States
closest to it, and at the beginning was almost wholly from the South,
particularly from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Insignificant
little Shawneetown, on the Ohio River just below the mouth of the
Wabash, gave easy access to the lower end of Illinois—that "Egypt"
which is still a Southern Democratic stronghold. For a short time it
was even the seat of government.
In this population the presence of a sprinkling of Northerners from
Pennsylvania was resented and an occasional stray Yankee was
scarcely tolerated. The settlement of the northern part of the State
by New Englanders was made to a marked extent by colonies or
organized groups, and from the early thirties one reads continually
of the movement of caravans from all the New England States and
western New York. Here again the opening of the Erie Canal gave
easy access to northern Illinois by water. Prior to that time the lead
mines in the northwestern part of Illinois and the southwestern part
of Wisconsin had been the main attraction, and had been developed
almost entirely by the Southerners.
In general, it may be said that up to that time three-fourths of the
population of Illinois came from south of the Mason and Dixon line,
with Kentucky making the largest single contribution, although a
small foreign element was already arriving, mainly from the British
Isles.
At the date of Statehood in 1818, Illinois may be said to have been
dominated by the Ulster Scots who had come in from the southern
Piedmont. These represented, on the whole, a class which for lack of
wealth and other reasons had not been slaveholders, and had no
particular sympathy with slavery, having found by personal
experience that the presence of slave labor was disadvantageous to
a large part of the white population. As a matter of fact, probably
not more than one Southern family in four ever owned a slave.
The population required of a new State for admission to the Union in
1818 was 40,000. By the beginning of the Civil War the population of
Illinois had increased to a million and three quarters. Obviously this
change in little more than a generation represented only in small
part the natural increase of the original settlers from Kentucky and
Virginia. So rapidly, indeed, did the forces of progress act in Illinois
that many of the old-timers packed up and moved on, as had
happened during the previous generation among their parents, and
Illinois in the following generation will be found strongly represented
in the early migration to California, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado.
To show how little slave-holding sentiment there was in the early
Illinois population, in spite of its Southern origin, it is interesting to
note that most of the Illinois contingent in Kansas were Free-State
men whom the South regarded as enemies to its cause.
For every one of the old-timers who moved farther west, a dozen
Yankees arrived along with many Pennsylvanians, while the Southern
immigration almost entirely stopped, having been diverted to Texas
or to territories beyond the Mississippi.
The people who left the slave-holding States in the decade prior to
the Civil War were largely seeking free soil themselves. This
movement of some of the best Nordic stock out of the South just
before and at the beginning of the Civil War has not been given as
much importance as it deserves. It was a factor in the weakening of
the South and the strengthening of the North. While slavery was a
curse in the opinion of many an owner of a great plantation, he was
caught in the system and felt that he could not get away. The poor
man, on the other hand, found conditions less and less to his liking
and many of the more intelligent decided to get out of a country
where they were obliged to compete with Negro slaves and were
looked down upon by their white neighbors. In this way the lands
along the Illinois Central Railway became a lode-stone for ambitious
and dissatisfied farmers from Tennessee, Alabama, and even from
Georgia. With the outbreak of hostilities this trickle became
temporarily a torrent as political refugees who did not care to remain
in a slave-holding republic at war with the American Union began to
seek freer air.
The railroads developed a new specialty in transporting whole
families with their furniture and agricultural implements to points in
Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, while steamers made their way up the
Mississippi crowded with refugees and great numbers of Missourians
crossed the river to Illinois with all their worldly goods. Many of the
latter returned home after Missouri was cleared of secession, but
their place was taken by new streams of Southerners released by
the victories of Union armies and coming to join friends and relatives
in southern and central Illinois.
The decline of leadership in the South after the war was not due
entirely to the loss of its men on the battle-field. Although this was
by far the principal factor, another important one was the flight from
the South of many of those who were not in sympathy with the fire-
eating politicians who had forced secession upon often unwilling
communities.
Before this time, however, the streams of foreign-born which poured
into the Mississippi Valley had already begun to influence the
composition of the population of Illinois, so that even in 1850 one in
four was of alien birth. The largest element was German, who
formed farming communities, mainly in the northern and central part
of the State. By 1860 there were 130,000 of them in Illinois,
together with others who had also come from Pennsylvania.
Ireland sent the group of second importance, and the great internal
improvements in this period were largely the product of their labor.
As elsewhere the Irish showed little inclination for farming, which
had proved so ruinous to them in Ireland, and they made a restless
floating population in the large cities. In 1860 they represented four
times as large a proportion of the population of Chicago as they did
of the State as a whole.
The State attracted a large English immigration. The Illinois Central
Railroad had been built to a considerable extent with English capital,
and the stockholders saw a chance to increase the value of their
shares by promoting emigration to the lands owned by the company,
so that by 1860 there were 41,000 English-born in the State.
Another large element of English descent, which had come into the
State in an extraordinary way, had already left. This was the group
of Mormon converts who were brought over from 1840 onward. By
1844 it was estimated that of the 16,000 Mormon arrivals, 10,000
were English. Most of these went west to Utah later, or were
scattered within a few years.
The last important Nordic element in the State was that of the
Scandinavians who had only begun to come before the Civil War, at
which time there were little more than 10,000 of them in the State
as against 87,000 Irish.

Michigan, owing to its proximity to Canada, and the importance of

Detroit as a headquarters, had a distinct French atmosphere in its
early days. Unlike those in some of the more distant settlements, the
French inhabitants at Detroit did not intermarry frequently with the
Indians, and they represent therefore a relatively pure French
Canadian stock. American immigration was slow, and not until 1805
did the inhabitants become numerous enough to warrant a separate
territory. As late as the beginning of the War of 1812 four-fifths of
the 5000 people in Michigan were French. In 1817 the first
steamboat appeared on the waters of Lake Erie and the Erie Canal
was begun, and from that time the Americanization of the territory
was rapid.
By 1830 a hundred ships, both steam and sail, were on the Lakes,
and a daily line ran between Buffalo and Detroit. In 1836 when the
State Constitution was adopted the population was nearly 100,000,
mainly from New England and its extension in western New York.
The Empire State can very definitely be called the parent of
Michigan.
Many of the New England farmers who had bought farms from the
great land companies in western New York found themselves unable
or unwilling to complete their payments and sold their equities for
enough to buy government land in Michigan and move their families,
while from the rocky hills of Vermont a steady stream came without
any intervening stop. By this time many of the French Canadians had
moved out, and of eighty-nine names signed to the Constitution of
1835, not more than three can be identified as French.
The tide of alien immigration at this period was late in reaching
Michigan. A group not found elsewhere was that of Dutchmen who
came like some of the earlier settlers, seeking religious tolerance and
freedom. The town of Holland has been a centre for them since
1847. Of the 749,113 inhabitants of the State in 1860, one-fifth were
foreign-born, divided not unequally between English, Irish, Germans,
and mixed Canadians.

Wisconsin's first settlement was at the lead mines of the

southwestern part and attracted largely Ulster Scots from Virginia,
Kentucky, and Tennessee. A little later these were reinforced by
another Nordic group of Englishmen from Cornwall who formed an
important element in that region.
The second migration scattered agricultural communities throughout
the southeastern part of Wisconsin along the lake shore. This
immigration was almost wholly from the New England States and the
New England part of New York State, and was accomplished roughly
in the years 1835 to 1850. By 1847 when Statehood was achieved
the territory had a population of nearly 250,000 and was virtually a
New England colony.
Of the seventy-six men who composed the second Constitutional
Convention, one-third came from New York, one-third from New
England, and the rest were a scattering.
During the decade which ended with the Federal Census of 1850,
the growth of the State had been nearly 900 per cent, a record
rarely exceeded in America. This extraordinary surge was due largely
to the sudden arrival of a foreign element which has ever since
made Wisconsin a State apart from all the others. Even as early as
1850 one-third of the population was actually foreign-born. Of the
foreign-born who came to the State during the territorial period, the
British Isles contributed about one-half and foreign-language groups
the other half. The English-speaking immigrants soon blended with
the native population, with the exception of the Roman Catholic Irish
who were less easily assimilated. In the decade before the Civil War
there was a stream of Belgian immigrants amounting to at least
15,000. Some hundreds of Russians also came in and the
Scandinavians had begun to arrive, although they did not play an
important part until after the Civil War. Danes and Norwegians were
beginning to come in some numbers but few Swedes as yet.
The great immigration of this period was the German, which
introduced another partly Alpine element into the overwhelmingly
Nordic population of the United States. These had begun to come
after 1830, when the Revolution in France had stirred up similar, but
less successful, political upheavals in the parts of South Germany
adjoining France. Many of the politically discontented decided to
leave the country or were obliged to do so, and they found in
Wisconsin conditions particularly to their liking. In the first place the
State offered a variety of climate and soil that was not dissimilar to
that in which they were brought up. In the second place land was
cheap and good and there was much forest land for which the
Germans showed a notable preference. Not only was the possession
of timber an asset, but it was to the German immigrant a mark of
social status. Forests had largely disappeared in Germany, except on
the great estates of the nobility. Hence, to own a piece of forest land
was a mark of superiority. Only the few could afford the forest land
in Germany but in Wisconsin every small farmer could feel himself as
good as the Duke or Prince whose yoke he had renounced. A third
important attraction after Statehood was a provision that the alien
could vote after only one year's residence. This gave the Germans a
political importance without delay which they lost no time in using.
German settlement in the United States follows a belt beginning with
Pennsylvania and running due west through Ohio, Indiana,
Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri. This was partly due to an avoidance
of the Southern States with whose products they were not familiar
and with whose land system and slave labor they were not
sympathetic. Being in this belt Wisconsin immediately took and
retained such a prominence that patriots from the "Fatherland"
seriously urged that it become a genuine German colony.
The Pennsylvania Dutch had already shown how little disposed the
German-speaking peoples were to become citizens of a new country
with a whole heart, and the new tide of immigration followed this
example. They attacked the public-school system from the beginning
and insisted on having their own schools and on having their
children taught German in the American schools. They kept their
own social organization and even went so far as to get the State
laws published in the German language in Indiana in 1858. This
tendency toward hyphenation has made the Germans a less valuable
element in the American population up to the present time than they
should have been.
The early German immigration to Wisconsin was on the whole from
southern and central Germany, and was pre-dominantly Alpine in
race and Roman Catholic in religion. Statehood in Wisconsin
coincided with the unsuccessful Revolution of 1848 in Germany
which started the real flood of German immigration that reached its
maximum numbers in 1854, and continued with noticeable strength
for more than a generation longer.
The principal Nordic emigration in the '40s was from Pomerania and
Brandenburg, and many of the South Germans, while largely Alpine,
were Protestants rather than Catholics. In 1863, just after the end of
the period here considered, the church authorities reported that
Wisconsin contained 225,000 German Lutherans as against 105,000
German Catholics. After that the Germans pressed more and more
into the northern and central regions of the State.
Wisconsin then at the end of the period here considered (1860) had
probably the largest non-Nordic population of any of the American
States, although even here the Nordics were in a great majority.
With one-third of its population foreign-born, it was surpassed in this
respect only by California.

IX
THE MOUNTAINEERS CONQUER THE SOUTHWEST
Meanwhile the States of the lower Mississippi Valley were coming into
existence at a rapid rate.

Alabama had no American settlement until after the Revolution, save

for the sporadic appearance of adventurers or traders. But in 1798,
when the Mississippi territory was formed, including the present
State of Alabama, there was already a movement of settlers from
the adjoining States on the east and north, and this continued
rapidly until checked by the war with the Creek Indians in 1813 and
1814. This war advertised the territory. Its termination threw the
land open to settlement, and more than 100,000 people located in
Alabama within five years. The slight French and Spanish element in
Mobile and two or three other places was soon reduced to
insignificant proportions.
The State was settled either by those who came down some of the
rivers of that region, particularly from Tennessee, or by those who
came through Georgia, stopping long enough at the land office in
Milledgeville (then the State capital) to make the necessary
arrangements for acquiring title to real estate. An unimproved but
passable trail ran thence through Montgomery to Natchez, and over
this "Three Notch Road" (so-called from the blaze which marked it) a
stream of settlers from the Atlantic seaboard States passed into the
broad belt of rich blackland which quickly made Alabama and
Mississippi the heart of the Cotton Kingdom. Alabama is, for the
most part, the offspring of Virginia, North and South Carolina,
Georgia, and Tennessee, and therefore represents almost entirely
Scotch and English blood. Its foreign-born population was negligible
in 1860, amounting to little more than 12,000, almost half of whom
were Irish, in a total of virtually a million.

Mississippi: As in most others of this group of States, the supposed

influence of the earlier French and Spanish settlements is more
sentimental than real. American settlers began to filter in after 1763,
some coming even from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New
England. A few Loyalists drifted down to the Mississippi country
during the Revolution, joining the British who were attached to the
district at that time in military or administrative capacities. One of
the elements of this Loyalist immigration consisted of Scotch
Highlanders from North Carolina.
The census of 1850 furnished the first opportunity to ascertain the
origin of the population. The main immigration naturally was from
other Southern States which contributed 145,000 against 5000 from
the Northern States. In the same year 18,000 natives of Mississippi
were residing in other Southern States, principally in Louisiana,
Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee.
At the census ten years later the Mississippi natives, then located in
other Southern States, had almost doubled in number. The
enumeration gives an interesting picture of the way in which
population was flowing backward and forward between adjoining
States at that time as it has in almost every other period in American
history.
Since the population of Mississippi before the Civil War was almost
identical in composition with the population of the other Mississippi
Valley slave States, most of which owed their inhabitants originally
to Virginia and subsequently to the States which Virginia had
colonized, it was not surprising that these people found it easy to
move from one part of this region to another. Of nearly 800,000
population at the outbreak of the Civil War, the foreign-born, still
mainly Irish, constituted only one in a hundred. But nearly half of
the population of the State was colored, and thus no element of
racial strength. In this respect Mississippi's record was surpassed
only by Georgia and South Carolina. This latter State was the only
one in which Negroes actually outnumbered Whites at that time.
Other Southern States later reached the same unenviable situation,
and it continued in South Carolina until after the shift of Negro
population which followed the World War.

Louisiana at the time of the Purchase in 1803 presented among its

50,000 residents a more varied group than could be found in any
other American State. The foundation of this population was French,
the Spanish element never having been important. These French
seem to have represented a much more heterogeneous lot than did
the early French-Canadians. One colonization scheme after another
had been launched in Paris, and settlers had been recruited by all
sorts of means, many of them of more than doubtful merit.
Here, however, as in other colonies, it must be remembered that the
final population represented not those who arrived, but those who
both survived and left posterity. This fact has too often been
disregarded in the accounts of the origins of the American
population. If France shipped prostitutes to New Orleans to provide
wives for its soldiers, nevertheless this is now of importance only in
so far as such persons left descendants. In one case, of which the
details exist, forty-four girls were sent out from France in 1722. They
all married, but only one left offspring.
Another element in the population was the Acadian refugees, who,
uprooted by the New England militia in 1758, were driven to almost
every part of the colonies. Some made their way to Louisiana, as
Longfellow has described, though drawing a very erroneous picture,
in Evangeline. Others were scattered through Maryland, Virginia, and
the Carolinas, in fact on almost every part of the Atlantic coast. The
total number of persons expelled from Nova Scotia at this time
probably did not exceed 6000, and many of these certainly died from
hardships. In any case only a minority was directed to Louisiana, so
that the original settlement of Acadians must represent a very small
part of the population. The so-called "Cajan" population of some of
the southern parishes of Louisiana is, at the present time, largely of
other origins, chiefly Negro.
Another group of French refugees came from Haiti by way of Cuba
after 1800, when the Negro uprising there drove out the Whites.
Many of these were persons of good quality but as many as could do
so went elsewhere after peace returned.
Still another source of population was the notorious Mississippi
Bubble sponsored by the Scotchman John Law about 1717. This was
the period at which the Germans from the Palatine and adjacent
regions were emigrating in large numbers, as has been previously
set forth in detail, and 10,000 or more of them were persuaded to
go to Louisiana. According to accepted accounts, not more than
2000 of these Alpines actually arrived, and when the bubble burst,
they settled along the Mississippi above Baton Rouge in a region
which is still known as the German Coast.
An ill-natured English traveller, John Davis, visiting Louisiana in the
year before the Purchase of 1803, has left the following picture of
these two elements as they appeared to him:

"The Acadians are the descendants of French colonists,

transported from the province of Nova Scotia. The character of
their fore-fathers is strongly marked in them; they are rude and
sluggish, without ambition, living miserable on their sorry
plantations, where they cultivate Indian corn, raise pigs, and get
children. Around their houses one sees nothing but hogs, and
before their doors great rustic boys, and big strapping girls, stiff
 as bars of iron, gaping for want of thought, or something to do,
at the stranger who is passing.
"The Germans are somewhat numerous, and are easy to be
distinguished by their accent, fair and fresh complexion, their
inhospitality, brutal manners and proneness to intoxication.
They are, however, industrious and frugal."

A small Spanish settlement, New Iberia, was made in 1779 of

colonists largely from Andalusia and the Canary Islands. At least the
former element doubtless contained Moorish blood.
Finally, there was an immigration from the American colonies which
had been coming in for a generation previous to the Purchase. One
of the first groups was from North Carolina. From time to time other
small bodies of settlers crossed the mountains to the Tennessee
River, where they constructed flat boats and floated down to the
Ohio and thence to the Mississippi. A few years later a group of
Scotch Highlanders from North Carolina arrived, settling near
Natchez. The early American immigration to Louisiana came on the
whole from the upland parts of the Southern States, and was
therefore Scotch and English. After the Purchase a similar
immigration increased greatly in numbers.
The census of 1860, which credited the State with 708,002 people,
revealed that only 81,000 of these were foreign-born, the Germans
and Irish being in about equal numbers. Nearly all of the remainder
who were not natives of the State were born in adjacent States of
the Mississippi Valley, the Whites being made up in about equal
proportions of native-born and those born in nearby States. The
former contained much of the old French and mixed stock; the latter
was almost entirely of British antecedents.

Arkansas, at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, did not contain 500
white people. The current of immigration down the Mississippi had
gone past the Post at the mouth of the Arkansas River without
taking the trouble to turn aside. Settlement can scarcely be said to
have begun before 1807, and at the census three years later there
were only 1000 people in the territory.
It was not until after the passage by Congress in 1818 of the Land
Act that the pioneers, each carrying in a leather wallet a certificate
which entitled him to a homestead, began to work their boats up the
current of the Arkansas River. There was a steady though not rapid
arrival of settlers from Virginia, the Carolinas, Kentucky, and
particularly Tennessee—which has often been regarded as the
original parent of Arkansas.
Attempts have been made to trace a line of migration from the first
settlement in North Carolina, the undesirable character of which was
mentioned earlier, through Tennessee and down into Arkansas, and
to attribute to this element of the population the backwardness of
some parts of the last-named State. A few settlers came from
Georgia or Alabama up the Mississippi River but this involved a long
struggle with a strong current and it was easier for them to settle in
the blacklands of Mississippi or Louisiana.
There were about 14,000 persons in Arkansas in 1817 when it was
created a Territory. Thereafter it made a steady growth, derived
generally from all the Southern States of the Mississippi Valley, until
nearly the time of the Civil War when Indiana and Kentucky began to
contribute some settlers. Its population therefore was in general
made up almost wholly of British stock. Its 1860 population of
435,350 was one-fourth black, the Whites being almost wholly
native-born, a thousand Germans and a thousand Irish being lost in
the mass.

Missouri must be considered from a double point of view. As a

French outpost, St. Louis had become the refuge of much of the
French population of the whole Northwest Territory when that
passed under English control, and for many years the city remained
a foreign settlement. Scattered settlers began to occupy the river
banks after or even during the Revolution. In the westward march of
population down the eastern slope of the Mississippi Valley small
groups soon began to enter Missouri, until at the census of 1810,
they amounted to 20,000 persons occupying a strip of land along
the Mississippi with a small isolated settlement at the lead mines.
On the other hand, as a territory where slavery was permitted,
Missouri naturally attracted emigrants from Virginia and North
Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. Within ten years after the
Louisiana Purchase it was estimated that four-fifths of the people in
Missouri were Americans and they were rapidly moving from the
river back into the interior.
The Missouri River was naturally an avenue of access for these
people. The interior of the State soon began to have the collective
name of "Boone's Lick" because the Boones had made salt in that
district in 1807. A real rush into this region began about 1817, and
Kentucky showed its loyalty to its adopted son (who it will be
remembered was a Pennsylvanian by birth) by contributing 90 per
cent of the immigration. The State has been called the daughter of
Kentucky and within limits this is not inappropriate. Tennessee,
however, was strongly represented. The whole population was in
general of the upland element originally from Virginia and North
Carolina, largely Ulster Scotch in its more remote origin.
By 1830 the movement of population had reached the western
border of the State. Until this time the settlement was purely British
in character save for the now negligible remnant of French on the
Mississippi. Missouri then began to get a part of the immigration of
German Alpines which makes Saint Louis still one of the American
cities with a most marked German tinge. At the same time some of
the old American stock who objected to slavery and its influences
were passing north and west of Missouri into Iowa, Kansas, and
Nebraska. On the whole, however, at the close of this period
Missouri remained a Nordic community mostly of Virginian stock
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