Computing Devices I ( Pre-Computer to 19th Century)

Man has put every effort to have a better method of calculations.They computer was developed as a result of man’s search for fast and accurate calculating devices.

Pre-computer Age to 19th Century Devices

Some of the pre-computer age to 19th century computing devices developed and used by man include:
Abacus, Napier’s bones
Pascal’s calculator
Leibniz multiplier
Jacquard’s Loom
Charles Babbage’s engine
Hollerith Census machine
Borrough’s machine.

Abacus

The first calculating device was probably the Abacus. The Chinese invented it.
Components: It is made up of a frame divided into two parts by a horizontal bar and vertical threads. Each thread contains some beads. It is known as Soroban in Japan and Suan Pan in china.
Uses: to do simple addition and subtraction

Napier’s Bone

In 1617 an eccentric (peculiar, unusual person) Scotsman mathematician named John Napier invented Logarithm which is a technology that allows multiplication to be performed via addition.
Components: A set of eleven rods, with four sides each which was used as a multiplication tool. These rods were made from bones and were the reason why they were called Napier’s Bone.
Uses: the rods had numbers marked in such a way that, by placing them side by side, products and quotients of large numbers can be obtained.

Slide Rule

Napier’s invention led directly to the slide rule, first built in England in 1632 and still in use in the 1960s by NASA engineers and Apollo programs which landed men on the moon.
Components: In most basic form, the slide rule uses two logarithmic scales to allow rapid multiplication and division of numbers. Traditionally slide rules were made out of hardwood with cursor of glass
Uses: The slide rule is used primarily for multiplication and division and functions such as roots, logarithm and trigonometry, but normally not used for addition and subtraction.

Pascal’s Calculator

In 1642 Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and scientist at age 19, invented the Pascaline, as an aid for his father who was a tax collector. Pascal built 50 of this gear-driven one-function calculator (it could only add) but couldn’t sell many because of their exorbitant cost and they were not that accurate.
Features: Numbers were entered by dialling a series of numbered wheels in this machine. A sequence of wheels transferred the movements to a dial, which showed the results.
Component: the calculator had spooked metal wheel dials, with the digit 0 through 9 displayed around the circumference of each wheel
Uses: Addition and subtraction of up to 8 digit number.

Leibnitz’s Calculator

It was realized by scientists that pascal’s toothed wheel could also perform multiplication through repeated addition of a number after careful consideration. Baron Von Leibnitz, the German philosopher and mathematician, added this development to the Pascal machine in 1694. The Leibnitz reckoning machine was the first two-motion calculator designed to multiply by repetitive addition.
Features: The Leibnitz calculator incorporates a new mechanical feature called the stepped drum. The step drum is a cylinder bearing nine teeth of different lengths.
Components: the device is made of copper and steel.
Uses: It can multiply, divide, add and subtract.

Jacquard's Loom

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard (French), a silk weaver, invented an improved textile loom. The Jacquard loom was the first machine to use the punched card. These punched cards controlled the weaving, enabling an ordinary workman to produce the most beautiful patterns in a style previously accomplished only with patience, skill, and hard work. Jacquard’s loom was one of the first machines to be run by a program.
Components: It consists of a loom that controlled the raising of the thread through punch cards
Uses: It is used to produce a textile design as per the program on the punch card.

Difference Engine

In 1822, An English mathematics professor called Charles Babbage invented the Difference engine
Features and components: It was composed of 25000 parts, weighed 15 tons and stood 8 feet (2.4m) high.
Use: Used for calculating differential equations

Analytical Engine

In 1832, Charles Babbage designed another machine called the Analytical engine which was deemed to be the first mechanical computer.
Features and components: The machine was steam-powered, though never completed, and outlined the basic elements of a modern-day general-purpose computer. It contains input in the form of a punched card containing operating instructions and a "store" for a memory of 1,000 numbers of up to 50 decimal digits long. It also contained a "mill" with a control unit that allowed processing instructions in any sequence, and output devices to produce printed results.
Use: It could store 1000 numbers of up to 50 decimal digits long. It was programmable

Hollerith Census Machine

In 1880, a census Statistician Herman Hollerith, devised a card machine called “Tabulator. He set up a company called “The Computing Tabulating Machine Recording Company” and later became International Business Machine (I.B.M) which today is one of the largest computer manufacturing companies in the world.
Features: He proposed to store information in the form of holes punched through a strip of paper.
Uses: It was used to process information obtained in the census of the population carried out in the United State in 1890. With this machine, he was able to achieve in three years what will take seven years to do manually.

Burroughs Machine

Williams Burroughs (1857 – 1898) built his first experimental model of an adding machine with printed output in 1884.
Features: The distinguishing features are the;
a. High sloping keyboard,
b. Bevelled glass front,
c. Printing mechanism out-of-sight at the rear of the machine.
Uses: The machine performed addition only.