History of

A computer is an electronic device that manipulates information,

computers
or data. It has the ability to store, retrieve, and process data. You
may already know that you can use a computer to type
documents, send email, play games, and browse the Web.

SUBTOPICS OF THE REPORT

Electro

2 3 4
Manual mechanical
Computational Computers Electro
Devices
nic
Manual- Compu
Mechanical ters
Calculators
 abacus

1
The abacus is one of many counting devices invented in
ancient times to help count large numbers, but it is believed
that the abacus was first used by the Babylonians as early as
2,400 B.C.1 The abacus was in use in Europe, China, and
Russia, centuries before the adoption of the written Hindu-
Arabic numeral system.

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 Napier’s

1 bones
In 1614, Edinburgh-born Renaissance scholar John Napier
invented logarithms. A means of simplifying complex
calculations, they remain one of the most important advances
in the study and practical application of mathematics. Napier’s
‘bones’ or ‘rods’ are just one of the methods this brilliant
mathematician invented to speed up arithmetic.

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 Oughtred’s

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Slide rule
About 1622, William Oughtred, an Anglican Minister, today
recognized as the inventor of the slide rule in its actual form,
by placing two such scales side by side and sliding them to
read the distance relationships, thus multiplying and dividing
directly. He also developed a circular slide rule.
 Pascalin

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e
Pascaline, the first calculator or adding machine to be
produced in any quantity and actually used. The Pascaline
was designed and built by the French mathematician-
philosopher Blaise Pascal between 1642 and 1644. It could
only do addition and subtraction, with numbers being entered
by manipulating its dials.
 Leibnitz’s

2
calculator
The stepped reckoner or Leibniz calculator was a mechanical
calculator invented by the German mathematician Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz around 1672 and completed in 1694. The
name comes from the translation of the German term for its
operating mechanism, Staffelwalze, meaning "stepped drum".

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 Jacquard’s

2
weaving
loom
The Jacquard mechanism, invented by Frenchman Joseph
Marie Jacquard and first demonstrated in 1801, simplified the
way in which complex textiles such as damask were woven.
The mechanism involved the use of thousands of punch
cards laced together. Each row of punched holes
corresponded to a row of a textile pattern.

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 Difference

2
engine and
analytical
engine
The Difference Engine consisted of a series of gears and
levers that could be programmed to perform a specific
calculation, and was powered by hand-crank. Analytical
Engine: The Analytical Engine was a more advanced machine
designed by Babbage in the mid-1830s, which was intended to
be a general-purpose computer.

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 Hollerinth’s

3
punched card
machines
In the late 1880s, inventor Herman Hollerith, who was inspired
by train conductors using holes punched in different positions
on a railway ticket to record traveler details, invented the
recording of data on a machine-readable punched card.

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 AtanAsoff-

4
berry
computer
Conceived in 1937, the machine was built by Iowa State
(abc)
College mathematics and physics professor John Vincent
Atanasoff with the help of graduate student Clifford Berry. It
was designed only to solve systems of linear equations and
was successfully tested in 1942.

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 Mark I

4
A programmable, electromechanical calculator designed by
Professor Howard Aiken. Built by IBM and installed at Harvard
in 1944, the Mark I's 765,000 parts were used to string 78
adding machines together. It used paper tape for input and
typewriters for output. According to Rear Admiral Grace
Hopper, the Mark I sounded like a thousand knitting needles.

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 Electronic numerical

4
integrator and
computer (eniac)
The ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer,
was the result of a U.S. government-funded project during
World War II to build an electronic computer that could be
programmed. The project was based out of the University of
Pennsylvania's Moore School of Engineering.

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 Electronic Discrete

4
Variable Automatic
Computer (EDVAC)
The Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, or
EDVAC, refers to an early electronic computer developed in
the 1940s. It is notable for being the first computer to utilize
stored-program architecture, which allows programs to be
stored in memory alongside data.

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 Universal

4
automatic
computer
On June 14, 1951, the U.S. Census Bureau dedicated
UNIVAC, the first commercially produced electronic digital

(Univac)
computer in the United States. Developed by engineers J.
Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, UNIVAC used thousands of
vacuum tubes for computation, setting the stage for modern
digital computers.

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 S UM M A
R Y
The history of computational devices dates back thousands of years to ancient tools like the abacus, which used beads on rods to
perform arithmetic. The concept of a mechanical calculator was introduced by the ancient Greeks, but it wasn't until the 17th century
that the first mechanical calculator, known as the Pascaline, was invented by Blaise Pascal.

In the 19th century, Charles Babbage designed the Analytical Engine, considered the first mechanical computer. Although it was never
completed, it laid the foundation for modern computing principles.

The 20th century saw the development of several important computational devices, including the IBM tabulating machines, which used
punched cards for data input and were widely used for business and scientific applications.

The invention of the transistor in the 1940s revolutionized computing, leading to the development of smaller, faster, and more reliable
electronic computers. The first general-purpose electronic computer, ENIAC, was completed in 1945.

Subsequent decades saw the development of increasingly powerful and compact computers, leading to the emergence of personal
computers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Today, computational devices are an integral part of modern life, with smartphones, tablets, and powerful supercomputers driving
advances in technology, science, and society.