Napier’s Bones

Napier's bones, also known as Napier's rods, are a mechanical calculator invented by John
Napier, a Scottish mathematician and astronomer, in the early 17th century. It was an analog
calculator used to perform multiplication and division by transforming these operations into
simpler addition and subtraction. The calculator consists of a set of flat, rectangular rods made
of wood or bone. Each rod is engraved with a multiplication table of a single digit (0 to 9) along
its length. To perform a multiplication, the rods corresponding to the digits of the multiplicand
are laid out side-by-side, and the rod corresponding to the multiplier is placed on top. The
product is then obtained by diagonally summing the digits at each corresponding position of the
rods.
 Pascalin
e

The Pascaline was the first mechanical calculator

to be mass-produced and widely used. Earlier
counting tools like the abacus existed, but the
Pascaline offered a more automated and efficient
way to perform calculations. The machine used a
clever system of gears and dials. Each dial
represented a digit, and rotating it would add or
subtract a corresponding value. This innovative
design made calculations faster and less prone to
human error
Leibniz Wheel

The Leibniz wheel, also known as a stepped drum, is a

key component that revolutionized mechanical
calculators. Invented by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in
1673, it remained a crucial part of calculating machines
for nearly three centuries, all the way until the rise of
electronic calculators in the 1970s. The Leibniz wheel
works in conjunction with a counting wheel. By rotating
the Leibniz wheel, a specific number of teeth on the
wheel meshes with the counting wheel, depending on
the desired value. This interaction between the varying
teeth lengths and the counting wheel allows for
mechanical calculation.
Difference Engine

The difference engine was a visionary but ultimately

unfinished mechanical calculator designed in the 1820s by
Charles Babbage, a renowned mathematician and
inventor. Unlike Napier's bones or Leibniz wheel which
focused on general arithmetic operations, the difference
engine was built specifically to automate the creation of
mathematical tables. It functioned based on the method
of finite differences, a mathematical approach that
calculates these tables by exploiting the relationship
between successive terms. This method allowed the
engine to compute tables efficiently using repeated
addition, avoiding complex multiplication and division
mechanisms that were harder to implement mechanically.
Analytical Engine

The analytical engine, another brainchild of the brilliant Charles Babbage, is often considered the world's first general-
purpose computer. Designed in the 1830s as a successor to his difference engine, the analytical engine was far more
ambitious and ahead of its time. Unlike the difference engine with its specialized purpose, the analytical engine was
designed to be a programmable machine capable of performing a wide range of mathematical operations. Inspired by
the Jacquard loom, which used punched cards to weave intricate patterns, Charles Babbage envisioned using punched
cards to provide instructions for the analytical engine
 Tabulating Machine
The tabulating machine, invented by Herman Hollerith in
the 1880s, was an electromechanical machine that
revolutionized data processing. The tabulating machine
was designed to automate the analysis of information
stored on punched cards. Punched cards were stiff paper
cards with holes punched in specific positions to represent
data. By electrically reading these punched cards, the
machine could sort and count the data much faster and
more accurately than manual methods.
Differential Analyser

The differential analyzer is an electromechanical

analog computer designed in the early 1930s to
solve differential equations by integration. These
machines were some of the first advanced
computing devices to be used operationally. The
core component of a differential analyzer is the
integrator, a mechanical device that takes a
physical representation of a derivative as input and
outputs a mechanical representation of the
integral. The number of integrators in a differential
analyzer determines the kind of differential
equations it can solve
Mark I

In1937,Howard Aiken thought the idea of a machine to handle large-scale calculations. In 1944,IBM and
Harvard collaborated to build the Mark 1
 Enia
c
ENIAC, which stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator
And Computer, was a groundbreaking achievement in the
history of computing. ENIAC was the first programmable,
electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in
1945. While other machines might have had some of these
features, ENIAC was the first to combine them all. This
made it significantly more powerful than previous
calculating machines.
Univac

UNIVAC, short for Universal Automatic Computer,

was a pioneering line of electronic digital
computers designed for business applications.
UNIVAC excelled at handling tasks like Accounting
 Payroll
 Inventory management
 Record-keeping
Compared to manual methods or older machines,
UNIVAC could perform calculations significantly
quicker, allowing to complete tasks more
efficiently.