The History Of Computers :: essays research papers

The History of ComputersWhether you know it or not you depend on data processors for almost everything you do in modern mean solar day life. From the chip you get up in the dayspring tothe second you go to sleep reckoner are tied into what you do and use in someway. It is tied in to you life in the most straightforward and obscure ways. Take forexample you wake up in the morning usually 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 skirt ituses computers. No mater how hard you try you can get by 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 years 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 thread across it horizontally and the beads were strungacross the wires . This was use for everyday arithmetic uses. These typecast 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 ruler was a mechanical device made of two rules,one sliding indoors the other, and marked with many number scales. This slideruler could do such 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 primitively made for his father, a taxcollector.2 Then he went on to pattern 50 more of these Pascalines, but clerkswould not uses them.3 They did this in fear that they would undecided their jobs.4Soon after there were many similar inventions. There was the Leibniz wheel around t hat was invented by Gottfried 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 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 self-made mechanical calculator that could do allthe normal arithmetic functions. This type of calculator was improved by many