The History of Computing

University Department of Professional Studies

Course: Technical English in ICT Studies
Teacher: Ivana Čizmić, senior lecturer

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Charles Babbage (1791 – 1871) – introduced the concept of a digital
programmable computer;
English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer

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 The Difference Engine (1812)
- he is credited with inventing the 1st mechanical computer, the
Difference Engine

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 Babbage’s analytical engine

• 1833 – Babbage started to build “analytical

engine”
• A real parallel decimal computer
• It operated on words of 50 decimals
• It was able to store 1000 such numbers

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 Herman Hollerith (1890)

• Introduction of punched cards

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 Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine

• The tabulating machine

was an electrical device
designed to assist in
summarizing information
and accounting. The
machine was developed
to help process data for
the 1890 U.S. Census.

• Image: Early IBM

tabulating machine

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 Hollerith’s Punched Cards

• Punched card (IBM card)

– a piece of stiff paper
that contains digital
information represented
by the presence or
absence of holes in
predefined positions
• Now almost an obsolete
recording medium

• Image: Hollerith’s
punched card

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 Binary representation

• 1941 – Konrad Zuse –

released the first
programmable, fully
automatic computing
machine
• The machine was called
the Z3
• It was the 1st machine to
work on the binary
system

• Image: Z3 replica

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 Howard H. Aiken (1900 – 1973) – a pioneer in
computing

• Aiken’s machine – a large automatic digital

computer called the Harvard Mark I
built at IBM in 1944
• It handled 23-decimal-place numbers (words)
• It could perform all 4 arithmetic operations
• It could handle logarithms and trigonometric
functions

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 Harvard Mark I
• Portion of the Harvard-IBM Mark • Right side
I, left side

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 Turing Machine by
Alan Turing (1912 – 1954)

• A Turing machine made by the British

mathematician Alan Turing in 1936

• A predecessor of programmable
computers

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 ENIAC
• The USA – their 2nd contribution – the giant
ENIAC machine
• John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert
• ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and
Computer) – 1st general-purpose electronic
computer
• It used a word with 10 decimal digits
• The 1st machine that used nearly 18 000
vacuum tubes
• It needed 167 m2 of floor space
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 ENIAC
• Detail of the back of a section of ENIAC, showing vacuum
tubes

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 Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011)

• Inventor, icon, genius

• CEO and co-founder of Apple
• Innovations in personal computing, mobile
tech, software
• Made early personal computer
• Created iPad, iPod, iPhone

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 Exercise I.

1. the device used in China as a calculating machine, 4000

years ago
• The abacus

2. the scientist considered the "father of computing"

Charles Babbage

3. the machine used by H. Hollerith in 1890 to read the US

census
Tabulating machine
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 Exercise I.
4. the computer developed by Konrad Zuse in 1941
Z3, the first machine to work on the binary system

5. the digital computer built by engineers at IBM and H.

Aiken in 1950
the Harvard Mark-I

6. the device designed by Alan Turing to perform logical

operations
the Turing Machine
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 Exercise I.
7. the giant machine which had more than 2,000 vacuum
tubes
ENIAC

8. the creators of Microsoft

Bill Gates and Paul Allen

9. the first computer with a graphical user interface and a

mouse
the Apple Macintosh

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 Exercise I.

10. the main uses of the Web and where it was

developed
The Web can be used for:
- looking up information
- shopping for books, computers, CDs, etc.
- investigating staff or researching at university
- downloading pictures, games, or other files
The Web was developed at the CERN lab in
Zurich, Switzerland.
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