We started the history with the abacus. A counting machine with beads to help with calculations.
In central America, during the times of the Mayans, they had a similar calculating machine, knots on ropes. They used it to work out where the planets and sun were and lunar eclipses.
In Russia, on a class trip two years ago, Mr Farquharson, saw that in a super market, although they had electronic tills, the cashier 9 out of 10 times used an abacus.
Next we looked at the Anithikythera Mechanism. It was used by the Greek in ancient times to, for instance, calculate the exact dates every four years of the Olympic Games. It used the Zodiak year and the months on one side and could work out the days in the year. Richard Whight rebuilt one that had been found in the sea 200 years later.
3 thousand years later...
Blaise Pascal in 1642 in France (while there was the English Civil War in England), built a mathematical adding machine.
In the 1800s, Jacquard built a loom that used punch cards that controlled the patterns of the weaving loom.
Charles Babbage, in 1832, built the difference engine. He was the first to receive government sponsorship to build a computer.
Ada Lovelace, 1815 to 1852, who was the first programmer.
1890s the US Americans built a big computer for the census. They needed an accurate census to estimate how many hospitals and such they would need. And they thought that calculating the census by hand would take about 10 years because the population was so big. With the computer it took only six weeks.
100 years later...
Computers used valves (vacuum tubes). During WWII there was a English computer at Benchley Park called Colossus. It was used to decode Nazi battle plans. For instance, a lady decoded a message of the Italians battle plans. The computer was destroyed after the war because they thought it was pointless. Although it was faster than a laptop.
At IBM the president declared that in the next 50 years the world would only need 5 computers !!
A little while later, still at IBM, they thought that computers would be used in offices but not at home.
Konrad Zuse, 1941 in Germany, built the first computer in binary.
Manchester Mark 1 was the first computer that could store a programme.
1945 first electronic computer ENICA. (used transistors and valves)
Some more dates:
1960 - Silicon chips invented
1975 - Microsoft founded
1976 - Apple founded
1985 - term 'cyberspace' first used in novel, Necromancer.
In central America, during the times of the Mayans, they had a similar calculating machine, knots on ropes. They used it to work out where the planets and sun were and lunar eclipses.
In Russia, on a class trip two years ago, Mr Farquharson, saw that in a super market, although they had electronic tills, the cashier 9 out of 10 times used an abacus.
Next we looked at the Anithikythera Mechanism. It was used by the Greek in ancient times to, for instance, calculate the exact dates every four years of the Olympic Games. It used the Zodiak year and the months on one side and could work out the days in the year. Richard Whight rebuilt one that had been found in the sea 200 years later.
3 thousand years later...
Blaise Pascal in 1642 in France (while there was the English Civil War in England), built a mathematical adding machine.
In the 1800s, Jacquard built a loom that used punch cards that controlled the patterns of the weaving loom.
Charles Babbage, in 1832, built the difference engine. He was the first to receive government sponsorship to build a computer.
Ada Lovelace, 1815 to 1852, who was the first programmer.
1890s the US Americans built a big computer for the census. They needed an accurate census to estimate how many hospitals and such they would need. And they thought that calculating the census by hand would take about 10 years because the population was so big. With the computer it took only six weeks.
100 years later...
Computers used valves (vacuum tubes). During WWII there was a English computer at Benchley Park called Colossus. It was used to decode Nazi battle plans. For instance, a lady decoded a message of the Italians battle plans. The computer was destroyed after the war because they thought it was pointless. Although it was faster than a laptop.
At IBM the president declared that in the next 50 years the world would only need 5 computers !!
A little while later, still at IBM, they thought that computers would be used in offices but not at home.
Konrad Zuse, 1941 in Germany, built the first computer in binary.
Manchester Mark 1 was the first computer that could store a programme.
1945 first electronic computer ENICA. (used transistors and valves)
Some more dates:
1960 - Silicon chips invented
1975 - Microsoft founded
1976 - Apple founded
1985 - term 'cyberspace' first used in novel, Necromancer.
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