Different devices and tools have been used in calculation and processing of data. An ancient calculating device is the abacus, a mechanical calculating device first used around 2500 BC to add and subtract. Scientists and mathematicians later sought other means for calculations. John Nepier, a Scottish mathematician, developed a series of rods made of comes that could be arranged to generate the products of selected numbers. If used these rods to produce the first table of logarithms. In 1865 French mathematician Blase Pascal improved on this concept and produced a mechanical calculator called Pascaline was capable of performing all the four arithmetic operations and producing mathematical tables quickly and accurately were not successful until 1820. Thomas De Colmar of France produced the arithmometer, the first four-function practical mechanical calculator in 1920.
A young English mathematician named Charles Babbage of Cambridge University contributed substantially towards the development of computers. Babbage gave much thought to the design of a device to produce mathematical and navigational tables and came upon a principle that used the "differences" between previous values in a table to produce new values. Babbage was able to construct a working model to illustrate the principle of the difference engine. Babbage thought of a steam-driven version of the difference engine. Babbage thought of a steam-driven version of the difference engine capable of calculating and printing results at a rate of two twenty-digit numbers per minute.
Babbage built part of the difference engine but abandoned it in favor of a more powerful and versatile machine, the analytical engine. The analytical engine was designed to use punched cards to provide a constan flow of information through the machines elaborate series of columns, gears, wheels, and levers. The analytical engine included all the functional units of a modern computer ; input of data, arithmetic unit for computation, memory for data and instructions, and display for output. This was an ambitious project during a time when electronics, transistors, and chips did not exist. The engine was a puzzle to all but a few mathematicians. This machine, however, was never built. Nearly a century later a new generation of scientists and engineers equipped with new developments brought Babbages vision back into focus.
A young English mathematician named Charles Babbage of Cambridge University contributed substantially towards the development of computers. Babbage gave much thought to the design of a device to produce mathematical and navigational tables and came upon a principle that used the "differences" between previous values in a table to produce new values. Babbage was able to construct a working model to illustrate the principle of the difference engine. Babbage thought of a steam-driven version of the difference engine. Babbage thought of a steam-driven version of the difference engine capable of calculating and printing results at a rate of two twenty-digit numbers per minute.
Babbage built part of the difference engine but abandoned it in favor of a more powerful and versatile machine, the analytical engine. The analytical engine was designed to use punched cards to provide a constan flow of information through the machines elaborate series of columns, gears, wheels, and levers. The analytical engine included all the functional units of a modern computer ; input of data, arithmetic unit for computation, memory for data and instructions, and display for output. This was an ambitious project during a time when electronics, transistors, and chips did not exist. The engine was a puzzle to all but a few mathematicians. This machine, however, was never built. Nearly a century later a new generation of scientists and engineers equipped with new developments brought Babbages vision back into focus.
