This document provides an overview of the four main ages in the history of information technology: pre-mechanical (3000 BC - 1450 AD), mechanical (1450-1840), electromechanical (1840-1940), and electronic (1940-present). It describes some of the key technological developments that occurred in each age, including early forms of communication like alphabets and paper, early mechanical calculators like the abacus, important inventions like the telegraph and telephone, and the first programmable computers like ENIAC which paved the way for modern electronic computers.

1. LESSON 1: Evolution of
Information Technology
CHAPTER I

2. Information technology
has been around for a
long, long time. Basically,
as long as people have
been around, information
technology has been
around because there were
always ways of
communicating through
technology available at
that point in time.
There are 4 main ages that
divide up the history of
information technology.
Only the latest age
(electronic) and some of
the electromechanical age
really affects us today, but
it is important to learn
about how we got to the
point we are at with
technology today.

3. The pre-mechanical age is
the earliest age of
information technology. It
can be defined as the
time between 3000B.C.
and 1450A.D.
PRE-MECHANICAL
AGE

4. We are talking about a
long time ago. When
humans first started
communicating, they
would try to use language
or simple picture
drawings known as
petroglyphs which were
usually carved in rock.
PRE-MECHANICAL
AGE

5. Early alphabets were
developed such as the
Phoenician alphabet.
PRE-MECHANICAL
AGE

6. As alphabets became
more popular and more
people were writing
information down, pens
and paper began to be
developed. It started off
as just marks in wet clay,
but later paper was
created out of papyrus
plant.
PRE-MECHANICAL
AGE

7. The most popular kind of
paper made was probably
by the Chinese who made
paper from rags.
PRE-MECHANICAL
AGE

8. Now that people were
writing a lot of
information down, they
needed ways to keep it all
in permanent storage.
This is where the first
books and libraries are
developed.
PRE-MECHANICAL
AGE

9. You’ve probably heard of
Egyptian scrolls which
were popular ways of
writing down information
to save. Some groups of
people were actually
binding paper together
into a book-like form.
PRE-MECHANICAL
AGE

10. Also, during this period
were the first numbering
systems. Around 100A.D.
was when the first 1-9
system was created by
people from India.
PRE-MECHANICAL
AGE However, it wasn’t until
875A.D. (775 years later)
that the number 0 was
invented. And yes, now
that numbers were
created, people wanted
stuff to do with them so
they created calculators.

11. A calculator was the very
first sign of an
information processor.
The popular model of that
time was the abacus.
PRE-MECHANICAL
AGE

12. The age of mechanical, is
when we first start to see
connections between our
current technology and its
ancestors.
MECHANICAL
AGE The mechanical age can
be defined as the time
between 1450 and 1840.
A lot of new technologies
are developed in this era
as there is a large
explosion in interest with
this area.

13. Technologies like the slide
rule (an analog computer
used for multiplying and
dividing) were invented.
MECHANICAL
AGE

14. Blaise Pascal invented
the Pascaline which was a
very popular mechanical
computer.
MECHANICAL
AGE

15. Charles Babbage
developed the difference
engine which tabulated
polynomial equations
using the method of finite
differences.
MECHANICAL
AGE

16. There were lots of
different machines
created during this era
and while we have not yet
gotten to a machine that
can do more than one type
of calculation in one, like
our modern-day started.
MECHANICAL
AGE
calculators, we are still
learning about how all of
our all-in-one machines
started.

17. Also, if you look at the size
of the machines invented
in this time compared to
the power behind them it
seems (to us) absolutely
ridiculous to understand
why anybody would want
MECHANICAL
AGE
to use them, but to the
people living in that time
ALL of these inventions
were HUGE.

18. ELECTRO
MECHANICAL AGE
The electromechanical
age, now we are finally
getting close to some
technologies that
resemble our modern-day
technology.

19. ELECTRO
MECHANICAL AGE
The electromechanical
age can be defined as the
time between 1840 and
1940. These are the
beginnings of
telecommunication. The
telegraph was created in
the early 1800s.
Morse code was created
by Samuel Morse in 1835.

20. ELECTRO
MECHANICAL AGE
The telephone (one of the
most popular forms of
communication ever)
was created by Alexander
Graham Bell in 1876.

21. ELECTRO
MECHANICAL AGE
The first radio developed
by Guglielmo Marconi in
1894. All of these were
extremely crucial
emerging technologies
that led to big advances in
the information
technology field.

22. ELECTRO
MECHANICAL AGE
The first large-scale
automatic digital
computer in the United
States was the Mark 1
created by Harvard
University around 1940.
This computer was 8ft
high, 50ft long, 2ft wide,
and weighed 5 tons -
HUGE.

23. ELECTRO
MECHANICAL AGE How does your PC match
up to this hunk of metal?
It was from huge
machines like this that
people began to look at
downsizing all the parts to
first make them usable by
businesses and eventually
in your own home.
It was programmed using
punch cards.

24. ELECTRONIC
AGE
The electronic age is what
we currently live in. It can
be defined as the time
between 1940 and right
now.

25. ELECTRONIC
AGE
The ENIAC was the first
high-speed, digital
computer capable of
being reprogrammed to
solve a full range of
computing problems. This
computer was designed to
be used by the U.S. Army
for artillery firing tables.

26. ELECTRONIC
AGE
This machine was even
bigger than the Mark 1
taking up 680 square feet
and weighing 30 tons -
HUGE. It mainly used
vacuum tubes to do its
calculations.

27. ELECTRONIC
AGE
This machine was even
bigger than the Mark 1
taking up 680 square feet
and weighing 30 tons -
HUGE. It mainly used
vacuum tubes to do its
calculations.