The History Of Computers :: essays research papers

The History of ComputersWhether you know it or not you depend on computers for almost everything you do in modern solar day life. From the second you get up in the morning tothe second you go to sleep computer are tied into what you do and use in aboutway. It is tied in to you life in the most obvious and obscure ways. Take forexample you wake up in the morning usu aloney to a digital alarm clock. You startyou car it uses computers the second you turn the key (General Motors is thelargest buyers of computer components in the world). You pick up the phone ituses computers. No mater how ruffianly you try you can get away from them you cant.It is inevitable.Many people think of computers as a new invention, and in reality it isvery old. It is about 2000 eld old .1 The first computer was the abacus. Thisinvention was constructed of wood, two wires, and beads. It was a wooden rackwith the two wires strung crosswise it horizontally and the beads were strungacross the wires. This was u sed for normal arithmetic uses. These type ofcomputers are considered analog computers. Another analog computer was thecircular slide rule. This was invented in 1621 by William Oughtred who was anEnglish mathematician. This slid formula was a mechanical device do of two rules,one sliding inside the other, and marked with many number scales. This slideruler could do much(prenominal) calculations as division, multiplication, roots, andlogarithms.Soon after came some more advanced computers. In 1642 came BlaisePascals computer, the Pascaline. It was considered to be the first automaticcalculator. It consisted of gears and interlocking cogs. It was so that youentered the numbers with dials. It was originally made for his father, a taxcollector.2 Then he went on to build 50 more of these Pascalines, but clerkswould not uses them.3 They did this in fear that they would loose their jobs.4Soon after there were many similar inventions. There was the Leibnizwheel that was invented by Gottf ried Leibniz. It got its name because of the wayit was designed with a cylinder with stepped teeth. 5 This did the samefunctions of the other computers of its time.Computers, such(prenominal) as the Leibniz wheel and the Pascaline, were not usedwidely until the invention made by Thomas of Colmar (A.K.A Charles XavierThomas).6 It was the first successful mechanical calculator that could do allthe normal arithmetic functions. This type of calculator was improved by many