Before Quantum Computers

BCBusiness brings to you a short timeline of the evolution of computers. From Ancient Greece to Burnaby, British Columbia, computers have been solving problems and making regular people wonder, What's next?

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Mankind has invented many ways to help him process and calculate data easier and faster. Computer history could be traced back 3,000 years ago, when the abacus was widely used. It's not a computer because it can't be programmed, but it is the first mechanical device that performed basic arithmetic calculations.

Later, the Greeks invented a mechanism, named Antikythera, to predict the movements of the planets and stars, and events like the Olympic games, too. The device was reconstructed recently by a group of scientist and amateurs in Britain. Click on the video to see a demonstration.

Image source: Wikipedia

It wasn't until the 19th century that an automatic machine was created. Joseph Jacquard – with knowledge based on Falcon and Vaucanson's punchcard system – perfected a textile loom that used the cards to control the weaving of fabric patterns mounted on a treadle-operation loom.



However, the first automatic computing engine was designed by Charles Babbage in 1837. The purpose of the machine was to help in the calculation of astronomical tables, and it used punchcards and steam.

Image source: The Computer History Museum

The machine was never built during Babbage’s time. But in 1989 the Science Museum in London started a 17-year project to build Babbage’s creation based on his original designs. The machine will be displayed and demonstrated in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, until May 2009.

Based also on the Jacquard Loom, Herman Hollerith (later an IBM founder) invented the standard punchcard, which was used from the 1890 US Census until the late 1980s. Over the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, electromechanical punchcard machines were the primary technology used for performing automatic calculations.

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