HISTORY OF COMPUTER PRE-MECHANICAL AGE

2. History of Information
Technology and System
Four basic periods
Characterized by a principal technology used
to solve the input, processing, output and
communication problems of the time:
a. Pre mechanical,
b. Mechanical,
c. Electromechanical, and
d. Electronic

3. The Pre-mechanical Age:
3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.

4. A.WRITING AND ALPHABETS--
COMMUNICATION.
1. First humans communicated only through
speaking and simple drawings known as
petroglyths (signs or simple figures carved in
rock).
E.g., cave painting from Lascaux,
France, c. 15,000-10,000 BC
Many of these are pictographs --
pictures or sketches that visually
resemble that which is depicted.

5. E.g., prehistoric petroglythic imagery from Western U.S.:
Geometric signs (dots, squares, etc.) with no apparent
depicted object = ideographs
( symbols to represent ideas or concepts.)

6. Starting in c. 3100 B.C., the Sumerians in Mesopotamia
(southern Iraq) devised cuneiform -- the first true written
language and the first real information system.
Early pictographic tablet (3100 B.C.).
2. First development of signs corresponding to spoken
sounds, instead of pictures, to express words.

7. Pictographs were turned on their sides (2800 B.C.) and
then developed into actual cuneiform symbols (2500 B.C.) -
- as this clay tablet illustrates.
Pictographs for star (which also meant heaven or god),
head, and water (on the left) were turned on their side (in
the middle), and eventually became cuneiform symbols (on
right).

8. A cuneiform table (c. 2100 B.C.) listing expenditures of
grain and animals.

9. 3. Around 2000 B.C., Phoenicians created symbols
that expressed single syllables and consonants (the
first true alphabet).
4. The Greeks later adopted the Phoenician alphabet
and added vowels; the Romans gave the letters
Latin names to create the alphabet we use today.

10. 1. Sumerians' input technology was a stylus that
could scratch marks in wet clay.
2. About 2600 B.C., the Egyptians wrote on the
papyrus plant
B. PAPER AND PENS--INPUT TECHNOLOGIES.
,
3. Around 100 A.D., the Chinese made paper from
rags, on which modern-day papermaking is based

11. 1. Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest
"books"
2. The Egyptians kept scrolls.
3. Around 600 B.C., the Greeks began to fold sheets of
papyrus vertically into leaves and bind them together.
C. BOOKS AND LIBRARIES--OUTPUT
TECHNOLOGIES (PERMANENT STORAGE
DEVICES).

12. D. THE FIRST NUMBERING SYSTEMS.
1. Egyptian system:
The numbers 1-9 as vertical lines, the number 10 as a U or
circle, the number 100 as a coiled rope, and the number 1,000
as a lotus blossom.
2. The first numbering systems similar to those in use today were
invented between 100 and 200 A.D. by Hindus in India who
created a nine-digit numbering system.
3. Around 875 A.D., the concept of zero was developed.
E. THE FIRST CALCULATORS: THE ABACUS.
One of the very first
information processors.

13. B. The Mechanical Age:
1450 - 1840

14. A. THE FIRST INFORMATION EXPLOSION.
1. Johann Gutenberg (Mainz, Germany; c. 1387-
1468) . Invented the movable metal-type printing
process in 1450.
2. The development of book indexes and the
widespread use of page numbers.

15. B. THE FIRST GENERAL PURPOSE "COMPUTERS"
Actually people who held the job title "computer are one
who works with numbers."
John Napier – introduces logarithms. He invents logs in 1614. Logs
allow multiplication and division to reduced to addition and subtraction.
Wilhelm Shickard – a professor at the University of Tubingen,
Germany, invents the first mechanical calculator, it can work with six
digits, and carries digits across columns. It works but never beyond the
prototype stage.
William Oughtred, an English clergyman, invented the slide rule.
Early example of an analog computer.
Slide rule

16. Blaise Pascal – a French Mathematician invented
a mechanical calculation machine called the
Pascaline.. The pascaline was made up of
clock gears, and levers, and could solve basic
mathematical problems like addition and
subtraction
The Pascaline (front)

17. (rear view)
Diagram of interior

18. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716),
German mathematician and philosopher
invented the stepped reckoner that could
multiply 5 digit and 12 digit numbers yielding
up to 16 digit numbers.
The Reckoner (reconstruction)

19. • Joseph Marie Jacquard developed an automatic loom that
was controlled by punch cards.
Joseph Marie Jacquard's loom.

20. • Charles Babbage invented the first, modern
computer design: a steam-powered adding
machine called “the difference engine.” He
also invented the “analytical engine” which is
a mechanical adding machine that took
information form punched cards to solve and
print complex mathematical operations.
Babbage’s inventions earned him the title,
“the father of computers”
The Difference Engine. The Analytical Engine.

21. • The first program was written by Ada
Augusta Lovelace for Babbage’s
Difference Engine. Thus Ada Lovelace
is credited with being the first
computer programmer. The
programming language Ada is named
in her honor.

22. • Continuation on the next slides….