History of Computers
The first counting device was used by the primitive people. They used sticks,
stones and bones as counting tools. As human mind and technology
improved with time more computing devices were developed. Some of the
popular computing devices starting with the first to recent ones are
described below;
Abacus
The history of computer begins with the birth of abacus which is believed to
be the first computer. It is said that Chinese invented Abacus around 4,000
years ago.
It was a wooden rack which has metal rods with beads mounted on them.
The beads were moved by the abacus operator according to some rules to
perform arithmetic calculations. Abacus is still used in some countries like
China, Russia and Japan. An image of this tool is shown below;
Napier's Bones
It was a manually-operated calculating device which was invented by John
Napier (1550-1617) of Merchiston. In this calculating tool, he used 9 different
ivory strips or bones marked with numbers to multiply and divide. So, the
tool became known as "Napier's Bones. It was also the first machine to use
the decimal point.
Pascaline
Pascaline is also known as Arithmetic Machine or Adding Machine. It was
invented between 1642 and 1644 by a French mathematician-philosopher
Biaise Pascal. It is believed that it was the first mechanical and automatic
calculator.
Pascal invented this machine to help his father, a tax accountant. It could
only perform addition and subtraction. It was a wooden box with a series of
gears and wheels. When a wheel is rotated one revolution, it rotates the
neighboring wheel. A series of windows is given on the top of the wheels to
read the totals.
