COIS3820H

History of Computing
Early computing devices
Early Computational Devices
(Chinese) Abacus
Used for performing arithmetic operations
Early Computational Devices
Napier’s Bones, 1617
For performing multiplication & division
Discoverer of logarithms

John Napier
1550-1617
Early Computational Devices
Slide Calculators

William Oughtred
1574-1660
Early Computational Devices
Pascaline mechanical calculator

Blaise Pascal
1623-1662
Early Computational Devices
Leibniz’s calculating machine, 1674
Strong proponent of binary

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

1646-1716
Joseph Jacquard: Punched Cards
A fundamental change to the
science of computation came in
1801 when Jacquard invented
punched cards
Each card represented directly
the pattern for each colour thread
at any given stage of the weaving
of a length of fabric
Each card represented a single
"instruction" for the loom, so a
series of cards represented a
"program"
Charles Babbage
1792-1871
The “grandfather of computing”
Father rich: devoted his life to study and research
Mathematician, industrialist, philosopher, politician
Wrote On the Economy of Manufactures (1832)
Eccentric (formed the Cambridge Ghost Club)
Loved fire, hated music
First home in London with AC
Brain dissected years later
Difference Engine
Machine proposed by Babbage
1822 – demonstrated the concept was feasible and
could be built with enough funds
1823 – secured £1500 to build
1833 – a prototype was built
1842 – Babbage loses government funding
after £17000 total

Babbage did not live to see a complete

functioning Difference Engine
Babbage Difference Engine
Photo of the
1832 Fragment
of a Difference Engine

fragment made by
H.P.Babbage
from parts of
Difference Engine No.1
Difference Engine
Early progress was good, a small model was built in
1822, and a Government grant of £1500 was
awarded in 1823.
The full machine:
10ft high, 10ft wide, 5ft deep
1 vertical steel axle per order of difference (6)
1 axle for the result
each carrying 13 brass number wheels 5 inches in diameter
each wheel numbered 0-9
wheel position indicates a digit
axles vertical to reduce friction
Why did Babbage’s Difference
Engine fail?
The engineering was more difficult than the
conceptualization
Two tasks were necessary:
1. design the Difference Engine
2. develop the technology to manufacture it
Other reasons:
Babbage was a perfectionist
He did not get along with his machinist (Clement)
Babbage lost interest
money, Babbage’s degrading reputation, heartbreak
many changes of Government
Analytical Engine
Designed around 1834 to 1836
while wallowing in the failure to complete the DE
was to be a universal machine
capable of any mathematical computation
embodied many elements of today’s digital computer
Key ideas:
control barrel – a primitive micro-controlled control unit
mill – performed arithmetic operations (like an ALU)
store – stored numbers (like registers)
store had 50 registers able to store 100 numbers of 40 digits
Incorporated using punched cards for input
idea came from Jacquard loom
Never built by Babbage due to lack of funds and his eventual death
in 1871
Analytical Engine
lithograph
by Babbage

Analytic Engine completed by

Babbage’s son, Henry
Portion of the mill of the Analytical Engine with printing mechanism,
under construction at the time of Babbage’s death.
Difference Engine 2
In 1849, while working on plans for his analytical engine, he
conceived of ways to improve his difference engine
He drew up a complete set of plans for the DE2
Plans cover over 1000 square feet
He presented the plans to the government with hopes they would
build it
One member of Parliament suggested that the machine could be
used to “calculate how much Babbage had already cost the
British government”
In 1991, the Science Museum in
London constructed a working
version from the plans
Babbage Difference Engine

Photos of Babbage
Difference Engine No. 2
constructed in 1991

On display at London’s
Science Museum
Ada Augusta Byron,
Countess Lovelace
1815-1852
Daughter of poet Lord Byron
pushed towards mathematics and
science by her mother in an effort to
make sure she didn’t turn out like him.
Mathematician who assisted Babbage
much admired by Babbage
she understood the significance of
his work, which others did not
Ada Lovelace
In 1840 Babbage lectured on the Analytical Engine in Turin,
seeking international support for his work
A “sketch” of the AE was written in French in 1842 by an
engineer called Luigi Menebrae. It was late and
disappointing (to Babbage)
Babbage and Lovelace had met at one of his soirees in
1834; she was fascinated by his models of DE1 and took
on the job of translating Menebrae’s sketch at the
suggestion of Charles Wheatstone, the publisher
She and Babbage were close friends and carried on a
lengthy correspondence; he encouraged her to do more
than a translation
Ada Lovelace
At around 40 pages, Lovelace’s notes on her
translation are about 3 times longer than the original
document
The notes really are notes; written in 7 parts with
different topics and tones, some for the public, some
for the specialist
Note A is a comparison of AE and DE, what each
would be useful/suited for
points out that AE could do symbolic computation
Note B concentrates on how the store would work
Note C is a detailed description of iteration
Ada Lovelace
Note D is concerned with the abstract structure of the
machine
Note E emphasises the versatility of the engine
Note F discusses possible applications
Note G describes how to compute the Bernoulli numbers
The analytical engine has no pretensions whatever to
originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to
order it to perform.
- Lady Lovelace’s Objection (to AI)
The notes were published in 1843, but largely forgotten
until they were rediscovered and republished in 1952
Ada – the first programmer?
Ada provided detailed instructions for how the
analytical engine would work
Some refer to as the world’s first programmer
Some historians dispute this moniker,
say most of the technical content & all of the programs were
Babbage’s
Some say she was Babbage’s PR girl, the acceptable
face of a difficult man?
Ada programming language named for her
Weaved coded instructions on punched cards
based on a language that was compatible with the Analytical
Engine
U.S. Census
Steadily increasing population
Early census had little info collected concerning demographics
More to do with “apportionment” for House of Representatives
1790 – 3.9 million
1840 – 17.1 million
28 clerks in the Bureau of the Census
1860 – 31.4 million
184 clerks
1870 – 38.6 million
438 clerks
census report 3473 pages
1880 – 50.1 million
1495 clerks
census report 21,000 pages
took 7 years to compile
Herman Hollerith
Born Feb. 29, 1860 in Buffalo, NY
Son of immigrant parents from Germany
Schooled at home privately
Worked at the US Census Bureau in 1880
Joined MIT as a mechanical engineering lecturer in 1882.
Joined the U.S. Patent Office in Washington DC in 1884.
The 1880 U.S. Census
Required seven years to
process
grew as population grew
In 1882, Hollerith
investigated a
suggestion by
Dr. John Shaw Billings
“There ought to be some
mechanical way of [tabulating
Census data], something on
the principle of the Jacquard
loom, whereby holes in a
card regulate the pattern
to be woven.”
The Hollerith Electric
Tabulating System
Initially tried to store data as holes punched on paper
tape.
inspired by train ticket
switched to the punched card as a better solution.
one card for each citizen
A pin would push through holes in a card into mercury
placed below the card to complete an electrical
connection, causing a counter to advance.
First tested on tabulating mortality statistics in 1887
U.S. Census Bureau held a contest for a mechanical
device to be used to count 1890 census
3 entries
Hollerith’s device won contest and so was used
The Hollerith Electric
Tabulating System

Photo: IBM
1890 U.S. Census
The Hollerith machine saved the U.S. Government $5
Million
2000 clerks
The entire census data was tallied in 3 months (vs. 2
years)
Data was processed in 2 ½ years (vs. 7 years)
Total population of the U.S.: 62,622,250
System was also used for census work in Canada, Norway,
Austria and the UK
Awards:
Elliot Cresson Medal by the Franklin Institute
Gold Medal of the Paris Exposition
Bronze Medal of the World’s Fair in 1893
The Press wasn’t so enthused
The public (and local politicians wanting more
federal money) thought the 1890 count was
inaccurate
The press echoed these concerns
“Useless Machines”
The Boston Herald
“Slip Shod Work Has Spoiled the Census”
The New York Herald