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42 Comments to "The Wonderful World of Early Computing"
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MoonCake
January 25th, 2008 at
7:16 am
see? good things CAN come out of war-times, regardless of whether it’s a “legal” war or not…
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avraamov
January 25th, 2008 at
7:52 am
leibniz’s stepped reckoner is a hurdy gurdy in disguise!
there’s a guy called nicholas gessler who is a historian of early computing - he has a collection of ‘physical memory’ devices which is fascinating. you can read an interview with him here:
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Jim Stroud
January 25th, 2008 at
11:26 am
What about the invention of the nerdy glasses, the pocket protector and disdain for non-techies who ask asinine questions like, “How do I fix the cup holder on my PC?” Sure its not as important as a programming language, but significant nonetheless. Am I right? (Smile)
Jim Stroud
Technical Sourcing Consultant
Microsoft -
Bruce
January 25th, 2008 at
1:20 pm
You have forgotten the efforts of Ada Byron (lady of Lovelace) and Herman Hollerith. Ada worked with Charles Babbage and came up with programming concepts used even today. Hollerith used punched cards for input on his machine that was used for the 1890 census. It was his machine that got IBM into the computer business. Before that they made typewriters.
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Eve
January 25th, 2008 at
1:20 pm
Where’s Ada Lovelace?
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Eve
January 25th, 2008 at
1:22 pm
Aha, note to self, read previous comments before commenting yourself.
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LV
January 25th, 2008 at
1:42 pm
What, no Tesla?
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akb427
January 25th, 2008 at
2:14 pm
Hopper did not find the bug. Some techs working on the machine did. Also, remember that the term “bug” had been in use for over sixty years before the Mark I bug. Pretty please correct the article text; this erroneous story has been circulating for decades.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug.
As noted by another commenter, Hollerith’s work was also very important; IBM purchased his company, and punched card unit-record tabulating equipment evolved into the basis of modern computer industry hardware. Sales of these machines to the Germans in the 1930s also helped them track the people they wanted to round up and kill.
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jack.wh
January 25th, 2008 at
2:30 pm
My great uncle was in charge of the eniac project
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Dim67
January 25th, 2008 at
3:11 pm
This is a great article. What amazes me is the Antikythera Mechanism. If they had this technology 100 to 150 years BC, then what the heck happened in the meantime? Did we all just blank out for 1000 years? Weird.
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Quadrivector
January 25th, 2008 at
3:34 pm
The Curta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta) was a hand held mechanical calculator, it’s still made today as some collector piece, but very expensive (http://www.vintagecalculators.com).
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Eric
January 25th, 2008 at
5:01 pm
Don’t forget numerous slide rules and other mechanical devices. There was also a plethora of card sorting machines around the late 19th to early 20th century (such as the ones IBM famously sold to the Nazis). Ada Lovelace’s contributions to computing (being the first programmer) were recognized by the DoD as well: systems were standardized on the “Ada” computer language for quite a while.
The Computer History Museum (http://www.computerhistory.org/) has a great open gallery that has a load of historical computers available, and is definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area. It’s even going to get one of those Difference Engines for display, albeit last I checked it was late b/c of construction issues.
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avraamov
January 25th, 2008 at
5:39 pm
Arf! just like the original!
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Ashley
January 25th, 2008 at
11:06 pm
Can we get cuts for such long articles as this to help page-load times for those of us not on amazing computers?
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VonSkippy
January 25th, 2008 at
11:40 pm
Good job on the original article….but, it’d be nice if you had a “stories section” for the full length article and put a short blurb on the front page just like any other article. You’ll still get your SEO (assuming you put your stories section under your main domain) and be able to digg it, it just won’t take up so much scrolling space on the front page.
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Silicon Valley
January 25th, 2008 at
11:56 pm
We have the history of Silicon Valley
please take a look at it
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Carbonfish
January 26th, 2008 at
12:44 am
Thanks for the great post. Although I had seen much of this information in other contexts, it is cool to have a chance to skip through the centuries of computation all in one convenient post.
Well done!
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Jeff
January 26th, 2008 at
1:19 am
Your article isn’t actually accurate - the first electronic digital computer was NOT the ENIAC but rather the ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) in 1942 at Iowa State. (see below). Atanasoff never had any vision to use it, and ISU didn’t either and it sat in a basement for years.
1942
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer is completed. Built at Iowa State College (now University), the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) was designed and built by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry between 1939 and 1942. While the ABC was never fully-functional, it won a patent dispute relating to the invention of the computer when Atanasoff proved that ENIAC co-designer John Mauchly had come to see the ABC shortly after it was completed -
E. Weed
January 26th, 2008 at
1:38 am
I hate computers.
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-
January 26th, 2008 at
2:39 am
Hi, you left out the Chinese clock which also calculated the positions of the stars, sun and moon. It was a very large an advanced mechanical piece.
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Karl
January 26th, 2008 at
3:26 am
Wonderful article!
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Alex
January 26th, 2008 at
4:20 am
@Ashley: you’re right, Neatorama’s not at all low bandwidth/slow computer-friendly, but I’m not sure separating this post out of the homepage would help that much …
@VonSkippy: I’ll think about it, but at the moment, it’s a little more work to set up a separate “story section” than I’d have time to put in. I’ve never done a lick of SEO on Neatorama (unless you count “prettifying” the permalink) so that’s not even a consideration. Just scroll down, people!
Thanks for those who liked the article - it was fun to write (found a lot of neat trivia that sadly didn’t make it to the article).
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Tl
January 26th, 2008 at
4:27 am
That’s amazing…
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Elwood Herring
January 26th, 2008 at
5:20 am
Zuse or Suze? Make your mind up!
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Lee
January 26th, 2008 at
6:57 am
This is a great post! A second installment exploring the explosive growth of personal computers would be equally interesting. Bill Gates is a man we love to hate, but if not for his vision, as well as that of Steve Jobs, et al, we wouldn’t be communicating the way we are in this blog.
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Lordvader
January 26th, 2008 at
2:02 pm
Excelent.
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Programmer
January 26th, 2008 at
3:39 pm
Excellent piece! Thank you. I was a little surprised to find no mention of John von Neumann nor of his paper giving the first design of a stored-program digital electronic computer. (Eckart and Mauchly’s ENIAC was digital and electronic, but not stored-program. Say what you like about software today, but at least it does not involve patch bays). See: “First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC,” John von Neumann, Contract No. W-670 ORD-4926. Moore School of Engineering and University of Pennsylvania. June 30,1945. http://www.virtualtravelog.net/entries/2003-08-TheFirstDraft.pdf
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Hans
January 26th, 2008 at
3:58 pm
I’d be interested in a reference or your assertion that Kepler used the Schickard calculator.
According to the accounts I have seen he had ordered a second one built intending to give it to Kepler but it was destroyed by fire before its completion and no further mention is made in the papers so far discovered.
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LikeToKnow
January 26th, 2008 at
5:13 pm
What happened to computing advancements between Antikythera Mechanism (100 BC) and Napier’s Bones (1614)?
Only about 1700 years are ‘missing’. Did you omit them fearing you may run out of ‘paper’?
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Gord
January 27th, 2008 at
1:00 am
1943 was NOT the eve of WW2. A little general history reading is needed here.
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Linux vs Windows
January 27th, 2008 at
5:36 am
An interesting point is the business models of the early computers in terms of Univac ( Sperry) vs IBM
IBM became the computer monolith or behemoth
Sperry faded away - eventually became Univac ( the power of two - early corporate merging model of what would not work out)
IBM had even obsolete technology - the hollerith or card punch machine. Sperry had a real computer
Yet the ibm people were businessman. Support , financing , sales support.
Wheras the Sperry side were scientists and technicians. If you think that this is great wait till next year. ( no sales then)
The message is one of proper balanced management - both for research and sales -
JKinKC
January 27th, 2008 at
12:17 pm
Following up on 8 and 12: IBM introduced the standard puchcard in, I think, 1923. A definite influence on thousands of computer scientists and millions of dead Jews.
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JKinKC
January 27th, 2008 at
12:18 pm
And what about Seymour Cray?
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VikingBerserker
January 27th, 2008 at
7:48 pm
One important fact was left out. Since the Jacquard Loom used punchcards to determine the pattern, it was the first programmable comupter (albiet a mechanical one). Excellent article.
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Konstantin
January 28th, 2008 at
8:43 am
In their history of the ENIAC computer, Alice R. Burks and Arthur W. Burks summarize the Atanasoff achievement as follows: “He invented a new type of a serial storage module, applicable to digital electronic computing. He formulated, developed and proved the major principles involved in electronic circuits for digital computing, principles that included arithmetical operations, control, transition from one to another number base systems, transfer and storage of data, and synchronized clocking of the operations. Having applied that data storage and those principles, he constructed a well-balanced electronic computer with centralized architecture, including storage, and arithmetically controlled input/output devices. He had invented the first-ever specialized electronic computer with such a degree of multi-aspect applicability.”
So the first computer was made by the son of a Bulgarian immigrant - John Atanasoff!
Look at:
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jeff kish
January 28th, 2008 at
7:07 pm
1943 was hardly the EVE of world war 2 by the way.
Nice article, thanks!”
The birth of the world’s first electronic digital computer was ushered … by war. In 1943, on the eve of World War II, the US military realized
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Lee Webb
January 29th, 2008 at
2:14 pm
Wait until someone figures out how the human brain works and puts all this binary & digital stuff in the dustbin of history.
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Michael
January 29th, 2008 at
4:16 pm
Great Post! But there is however one glaring ommission. Douglas Adams’ Infinite Improbability Drive! We could not ever reach Level 42 without it.:0
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mvillarejo
January 29th, 2008 at
5:58 pm
Great, great post! like it so much!
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Fingel
January 31st, 2008 at
4:58 pm
Amazing post! I really enjoyed reading it.
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raj
February 7th, 2008 at
3:37 pm
How about the invention of ZERO by Indians
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Evil Pundit
February 9th, 2008 at
4:16 am
A couple of commenters ask why there were no known advancements in computing technology for a thousand years after the Antikythera Mechanism.
During the intervening period, the Roman Empire collapsed and much the fruits of European civilisation were lost in a period called the Dark Ages. It was only after hundreds of years that technology resumed its march.
Though there were some developments in other parts of the world, they didn’t catch on and change history the way that the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution did.
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