A Brief History Of Computers

1. A Brief History of Computers
Computers have been around for a very long time. Going back in history, some people believe that the abacus was the true first computer. The
first abacus is believed to come into existence between 2700–2300 BC and was created by the Sumerians so that they could count faster, and has
evolved through the years. The term "computer" came out around 1613. People who performed computations or calculations were often referred
to as computers. One of the first major counting problems in history was the Census. The first census was taken when George Washington was
in office in 1790. In 1790 there were so many people that it took more than seven years to add up all of the numbers for the census. The
government was very frustrated that it took so long to tabulate. As the country grew, it became harder and harder to count all of the people and it
took longer and longer. The need for speed kept on growing. In 1890, a young engineer named Herman Hollerith designed a punch card system to
tally up the 1880 census information. The census calculations only took three years and saved the government $5 million dollars. Information was
stored on cards with holes in them. Herman's machine used mechanics to read the information and calculate the results. He created a company that
became IBM and was founded in 1911.
In 1939, David Packard and Bill Hewlett who were classmates, founded the company Hewlett–Packard. They started out working the business out
of a garage in Palo Alto, California. One
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