In , U. Developed in the s and s by Samuel Morse and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. In addition to helping invent the telegraph, Samuel Morse The American Revolution was fought—and won—with guns, and the weapons have become ingrained in U. The origin of firearms began with gunpowder and its invention, mostly Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Invention of the PC: Postwar Innovations ENIAC and other early computers proved to many universities and corporations that the machines were worth the tremendous investment of money, space and manpower they demanded.
Recommended for you. Inventions: Computers and Internet. Invention of the Automobile. Because of its electronic, as opposed to electromechanical, technology, it is over 1, times faster than any previous computer.
ENIAC used panel-to-panel wiring and switches for programming, occupied more than 1, square feet, used about 18, vacuum tubes and weighed 30 tons. It was believed that ENIAC had done more calculation over the ten years it was in operation than all of humanity had until that time. Their first program, consisting of seventeen instructions and written by Kilburn, ran on June 21st, This was the first program in history to run on a digital, electronic, stored-program computer.
These tables were later confirmed by using more modern computers for the actual flights. The SSEC was one of the last of the generation of 'super calculators' to be built using electromechanical technology. It was transferred to the Department of Physics at the University of Melbourne in and remained in service until The first practical stored-program computer to provide a regular computing service, EDSAC is built at Cambridge University using vacuum tubes and mercury delay lines for memory.
Wilkes' ideas grew out of the Moore School lectures he had attended three years earlier. This type of computer is useful in performing many of the mathematical equations scientists and engineers encounter in their work.
It was originally created for a nuclear missile design project in by a team led by Fred Steele. It used 53 vacuum tubes and hundreds of germanium diodes, with a magnetic drum for memory. Tracks on the drum did the mathematical integration. The Manchester Mark I used more than 1, vacuum tubes and occupied an area the size of a medium room. The , designed by ERA but built by Remington-Rand, was intended for high-speed computing and stored 1 million bits on its magnetic drum, one of the earliest magnetic storage devices and a technology which ERA had done much to perfect in its own laboratories.
The design packed vacuum tubes into a relatively compact 12 square feet. The hobbyist magazine Radio Electronics publishes Edmund Berkeley's design for the Simon 1 relay computer from to Let us call it Simon, because of its predecessor, Simple Simon Simon is so simple and so small in fact that it could be built to fill up less space than a grocery-store box; about four cubic feet.
It was built in Washington DC as a test-bed for evaluating components and systems as well as for setting computer standards. It was also one of the first computers to use all-diode logic, a technology more reliable than vacuum tubes. SWAC was used to solve problems in numerical analysis, including developing climate models and discovering five previously unknown Mersenne prime numbers.
A British government contract spurred its initial development but a change in government led to loss of funding and the second and only other Mark I was sold at a major loss to the University of Toronto, where it was re-christened FERUT.
The Univac 1 is the first commercial computer to attract widespread public attention. One biblical scholar even used a Univac 1 to compile a concordance to the King James version of the Bible. After the success of the first LEO, Lyons went into business manufacturing computers to meet the growing need for data processing systems in business. The Institute of Advanced Study IAS computer is a multi-year research project conducted under the overall supervision of world-famous mathematician John von Neumann.
The IAS computer was designed for scientific calculations and it performed essential work for the US atomic weapons program. The bit machine used 92 point-contact transistors and diodes. During three years of production, IBM sells 19 s to research laboratories, aircraft companies, and the federal government. Programmer Arthur Samuels used the to write the first computer program designed to play checkers.
It was named after John von Neumann, a world famous mathematician and computer pioneer of the day. Johnniac was used for scientific and engineering calculations. It was also repeatedly expanded and improved throughout its year lifespan.
Many innovative programs were created for Johnniac, including the time-sharing system JOSS that allowed many users to simultaneously access the machine.
IBM establishes the as its first mass-produced computer, with the company selling in just one year. The Model was also highly popular in universities, where a generation of students first learned programming. Over 30 were completed, including one delivered to Australia. Typically, computer users of the time fed their programs into a computer using punched cards or paper tape.
Doug Ross wrote a memo advocating direct access in February. Ross contended that a Flexowriter -- an electrically-controlled typewriter -- connected to an MIT computer could function as a keyboard input device due to its low cost and flexibility. An experiment conducted five months later on the MIT Whirlwind computer confirmed how useful and convenient a keyboard input device could be.
For easy replacement, designers placed each transistor circuit inside a "bottle," similar to a vacuum tube.
DEC is founded initially to make electronic modules for test, measurement, prototyping and control markets. Headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts, Digital Equipment Corporation, took over 8, square foot leased space in a nineteenth century mill that once produced blankets and uniforms for soldiers who fought in the Civil War. The mill is still in use today as an office park Clock Tower Place today. The is built on a 'building block' concept which allows it to be highly flexible for many different uses and could simultaneously control up to 63 tape drives—very useful for large databases of information.
For many business users, quick access to this huge storage capability outweighed its relatively slow processing speed. Customers included US military as well as industry. Its task was to detect incoming Soviet bombers and direct interceptor aircraft to destroy them.
Operators directed actions by touching a light gun to the SAGE airspace display. Its large scope intrigued early hackers at MIT, who wrote the first computerized video game, SpaceWar! More than 50 PDP-1s were sold. It was sold exclusively in Japan, but could process alphabetic and Japanese kana characters. Only about thirty NEACs were sold. It managed Japan's first on-line, real-time reservation system for Kinki Nippon Railways in The last one was decommissioned in At the top of the line was the Model , also known as "Stretch.
The mainframe, the first in the series, replaces earlier vacuum tube technology with smaller, more reliable transistors. By the mids, nearly half of all computers in the world were IBM s. Minuteman missiles use transistorized computers to continuously calculate their position in flight.
The computer had to be rugged and fast, with advanced circuit design and reliable packaging able to withstand the forces of a missile launch. When the Minuteman I was decommissioned, some universities received these computers for use by students. The US Navy Tactical Data System uses computers to integrate and display shipboard radar, sonar and communications data. This real-time information system began operating in the early s. System control was provided through the Atlas Supervisor, which some consider to be the first true operating system.
The Control Data Corporation CDC performs up to 3 million instructions per second —three times faster than that of its closest competitor, the IBM supercomputer. The retained the distinction of being the fastest computer in the world until surpassed by its successor, the CDC , in Instead of designing a custom controller, two young engineers from Digital Equipment Corporation DEC -- Gordon Bell and Edson de Castro -- do something unusual: they develop a small, general purpose computer and program it to do the job.
A later version of that machine became the PDP-8, the first commercially successful minicomputer. Because of its speed, small size, and reasonable cost, the PDP-8 was sold by the thousands to manufacturing plants, small businesses, and scientific laboratories around the world. At the same press conference, IBM also announced 40 completely new peripherals for the new family.
Operational by , it was not the first computerized reservation system, but it was well publicized and became very influential. It was the world's first commercial bit minicomputer and systems were sold. This printing programmable calculator was made from discrete transistors and an acoustic delay-line memory.
The Programma could do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as calculate square roots. It was developed as a versatile instrument controller for HP's growing family of programmable test and measurement products. It interfaced with a wide number of standard laboratory instruments, allowing customers to computerize their instrument systems.
The A also marked HP's first use of integrated circuits in a commercial product. In , the first desktop computer, the Programma , was unveiled to the public at the New York World's Fair. It was invented by Pier Giorgio Perotto and manufactured by Olivetti. In , Hewlett Packard began marketing the HP A , considered to be the first mass-marketed desktop computer. Although it was never sold, the first workstation is considered to be the Xerox Alto , introduced in The computer was revolutionary for its time and included a fully functional computer, display, and mouse.
The computer operated like many computers today utilizing windows , menus , and icons as an interface to its operating system. Intel introduces the first microprocessor, the Intel , on November 15, Considered as the first microcomputer, it used the Intel processor and was the first commercial non-assembly computer.
In , Ed Roberts coined the term "personal computer" when he introduced the Altair The computer relied on a series of switches for inputting data and output data by turning on and off a series of lights. The IBM is the first portable computer, which was released in September The computer weighed pounds and had a five-inch CRT display, tape drive , 1.
The first truly portable computer or laptop is considered to be the Osborne I , which was released in April and developed by Adam Osborne. The Osborne I weighed The computer kit was developed by Steve Wozniak in and contained a 8-bit processor and 4 kb of memory, which was expandable to 8 or 48 kb using expansion cards.
Although the Apple I had a fully assembled circuit board, the kit required a power supply , display , keyboard , and case to be operational. Below is a picture of an Apple I from an advertisement by Apple. The computer was code-named Acorn. When was the first computer invented?
Note Early inventions that lead up to the computer, such as the abacus , astrolabe, slide rule , clocks, calculator , and tablet machines, are not accounted for on this page. When was the word "computer" first used? First mechanical computer or automatic computing engine concept. First general-purpose computer. The first machine to record and store information. A rare Kenbak-1 is being auctioned in Germany this weekend. Mr Blankenbaker, and an early advertisement for the Kenbak-1 personal computer in Pioneer days.
Image source, Keystone. Mr Blankenbaker became interested in computing when he read about the Eniac computer. Educational aim. History of the Kenbak Switches keyed the input and lights displayed the output Was capable of executing several hundred instructions per second Possessed a memory of about 1, words First advert in September issue of Scientific American Pre-dated Apple I by five years Maximum of 50 units produced between and Voted "first commercially available personal computer" by Boston Computer Museum in Hidden future.
The inside of the early Kenbak-1 that is being auctioned. Related Topics.
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