In the year 1837, a mathematics professor from Britain known as Charles Babbage came up with the design for an analytical engine which would be the first mechanical computer with a stored program. It was intended to use an engine powered by steam. Punched cards were to be used to configure mechanical looms in the computer system. It was on the basis of this design that many similar devices were later developed. Babbage’s design was preferred by other inventers because of its ability to be programmed and it is widely considered to be the origin of computing.
In the year 1939, two scientists known as Clifford Berry and John V. Atanasoff developed what was known as the ABC computer at the State University in Iowa. It is considered to be the first digital electronic computer. This device was hand built and contained more than three hundred vacuum tubes. Its capacitors were attached inside a drum which rotated mechanically for memory. Atanasoff tried hard to patent this invention but all his efforts were unsuccessful and a big part of his inability to get the patent was because the university curtailed his efforts. To add to Atanasoff’s woes, a Chicago lawyer unintentionally lost some of the drawings of the patent design and as a result an application could not be filed. Similar inventions came up later on and improved on earlier computer inventions. Over years, the computer has evolved greatly with laptops and palmtops becoming popular.
Old computer