Early Aid to Counting: The Historical Development of Computers

The development of computer from the first attempt to date, is as a result of efforts made by some innovators; some of these widely acclaimed inventors is given below.

EARLY AIDS TO COUNTING

FINGER/STONES

Prior to the discovery of alternative means for counting, fingers, toes and stones were used in counting, and in the performance of simple arithmetic calculations such as addition of numbers, subtraction, etc. This simple way of counting was difficult to use for large counts because stones were very awkward. The methods were used until the invention of the Abacus device.

Abacus

The Abacus device was invented to replace the traditional method (fingers/stones) of counting. The abacus device is an instrument used for counting as far back as 500 B.C. With the objective of making calculations easier, and to suit the various number systems.

Among the countries that used the Abacus were Russia, Japan, China, Greece and Rome.

There exist different types of abacus device, thus: the Chinese abacus, Aztec abacus, Russian abacus and Japanese Soroban device. Around about the year 1200 the Chinese used this method to count.

The Aztec, a tribe of Central American Indians used rods stuck into a block of wood, on to which beads were threaded. Other countries like Russia, Japan and China; the beads were threaded on wires held in a wooden frame.

Napier's Bones

The next significant development after the abacus came in 1617 when John Napier, a Scottish mathematician, invented the Napier bones. These were simply rods on which numbers were marketed. These number enable the user to easily work out the answers to a restricted set of the multiplication tables.

The numbers to be multiplied are positioned on the top row and the left column. Answer is obtained at the interoperation of these two. This method, pioneered by Napier, is still used as a curiosity in Maths lessons at some local schools.

Though Napier invented these bones, it was perhaps Logarithms that made him famous. Tables of Logarithms were developed which enabled multiplication and division to be carried out very simply by addition and subtraction.

The invention of both logarithms and Napier's bones led to the invention of a device termed Slide Rule by William Oughtred. This device make use of a cursor, which is moved up and down various scales to perform multiplication and division using the principles of Logarithms. Thus, the device is equivalent to today pocket calculator.

EARLY MECHANICAL AIDS TO COUNTING

Pascal Machine

In 1642 Blasé Pascal invented the first calculating machine, hence, naming a high level language after him honored him. This invention came when he was 19 years old. This machine was developed to assist his father in his work, mainly the auditing of government accounts.

This machine consists of clogged wheels, gears and dials. Each wheel was divided into ten sections, representing numbers, and the mechanism allowed a carry from one wheel to the next. The machine had input, processing and output devices. Basically, the Pascal machine was only capable of addition.

Leibuiz Machine

Many other inventors made calculating machines after this, but a German Gottfried Von Leigniz, a famous mathematician, made the most significant contribution to mechanical calculator in 1671.

The machine also used wheel with teeth on them, termed "steeped wheel", which allowed long multiplication and division to be done. The process of multiplication involved repeated addition.

Unfortunately, Leibniz's machine was unreliable, as were mot of the early calculators. It was very difficult in those days to make the parts to be required precision. Because of this problem mechanical calculators were not popular for many years, and it was not until the late nineteenth century that they became widely used in business. At that time, one of most popular calculators was the "Millionaire" of which over two thousand were sold.

From Calculating Device to Information Processing Device

The earlier machines mentioned above were merely calculators, used mainly for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of two or more numbers.

George Scheutz, a Swedish engineer, built two difference engines. The first was completed in 1855 and was shipped to America. The second was built in 1859 and was used by the Register General's Office, to compute the "English Lifetime Table" annuities and premiums. Both of these machines were less complex than the design of Babbage's machine and were there easier to make.

Babbage began the design of another machine called an "Analytical Engine" in 1833. He believed that it would be possible to program the machine to do any calculation, and then, automatically print out the result. An impressive thing about the Analytical Engine is that, it contained all the main features of a modern computer. Hence, Charles Babbage is known as the pioneer of computer because of the ideas he introduced.

Herman Hollerith's Machine

The rest of the nineteenth century witnessed the design of more complicated mechanical devices. An American called Herman Hollerith made the most outstanding and important. The machine was used to process information obtained in the census of the population carried out in the United States in 1890. With this machine, he was able to achieved in three years what will take seven years to do manually.

To sell his machine, he formed a company. After series of mergers with other companies, his company became part of the America Computer Company known as International Business Machine (IBM), the largest computer manufacturer in the world.

THE ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS

The invention of electronics transforms the mechanical way of processing data into information. Earlier, counting was done in base ten; this is called decimal system. It is also possible to count in bases eight, six, two and many more.

But, the introduction of electronic led to the design of electronic computing machines. Electronic computers count in a system based on 0s and 1s.