Steps in the history of computing and computers
An aid to calculations made in ancient times was the abacus, a tablet with grooves in which to place the tiles or stones (from which calculus) like "abaci" which became in time the kind of straightedges, more or less complex including one described in 1606 by Galileo, then Pascal and more fully Leibniz invented mechanical calculators which was also the basis of the functioning of a complex machinery for calculations designed by Babbage after 1822 that was also programmed using punch cards which were used to weave the threads in mechanical looms (Jacquard). The development of calculators was mainly by watchmakers, the only ones at this time were able to manufacture the many cogs of these machines, and have to wait until Zuse (about 1934) to see the appearance of relays and Atanasoff for the first modern real computer including electronic memory and printing.
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Date: 31/08/2011
article n°: 1672
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