User:Sgambard/Computer

The abacus was initially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was developed from devices used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BCE.

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Etymology

It was not until the mid-20th century that the word acquired its modern definition; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known use of the word computer was in a different sense, in a 1613 book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by the English writer Richard Brathwait: "I haue [sic] read the truest computer of Times, and the best Arithmetician that euer [sic] breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number." This usage of the term referred to a human computer, a person who carried out calculations or computations. This definition persisted until the middle of the 20th century. During the latter part of this period women were often hired as computers because they could be paid less than their male counterparts. By 1943, most human computers were women.

History

Sir William Thomson had already discussed the possible construction of such calculators, but he had been stymied by the limited output torque of the ball-and-disk integrators.

The planimeter was a manual instrument to calculate the area of a closed figure by tracing over it with a mechanical linkage. The oldest of these devices was built in 1818 by Johann Martin Hermann, however similar devices were constructed in 1825 and 1826 by Tito Gonnella and Johannes Oppikofer respectively. It is unknown if they were aware of Hermann's prior creation.

First computer

Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath, developed the concept of a programmable computer.

Babbage's failure to complete the analytical engine can be chiefly attributed to political and financial difficulties as well as his desire to develop an increasingly sophisticated computer and to move ahead faster than anyone else could follow. While the analytical engine was not completed until much later, Babbage's work went on to inspire English mathematician Ada Lovelace. While attending a seminar at the University of Turin, Lovelace came into contact with Luigi Menabrea's work on the analytical engine. She translated his work into English, and added her own contributions. These contributions included what is considered to be the first ever computer program. Nevertheless, his son, Henry Babbage, completed a simplified version of the analytical engine's computing unit (the mill) in 1888. He gave a successful demonstration of its use in computing tables in 1906.