The First Computers

Charles Babbage's Analytical Machine

Charles Babbage, an eccentric mathematician and inventor, first made the plans for a mechanical computer that was fully programmable in 1837. This was a successor to a former design of his that was in 1822. It is often debated about whether the first computer should be considered electronical, mechanical, or how it should be determined. However, this was most definitely the first programmable, albeit mechical, computer. Though modern recreations exist, Babbage was never able to build his computers due to lack of finances and the inability to stop tinkering with designs after he created them. In fact, two Sweedish engineers who created one recereation of the Analytical machine said:

Ada Lovelace was a mathematician who worked with Charles Babbage on his design. She is credited with being the first computer programmer. One program that she wrote was able to compute the "Bernoulli numbers." A programming language entitled Ada was named in her honour in 1979.

"Z" Series Computers

Dr. Konrad Zuse, a German engineer, made a series of early computers (or "automatic calculators" as some of the earlier models could be more accurately described as) beginning at the start of World War II. He is often considered the "father of modern computers" for this invention, though he brushed this title off during his life.

In 1936, Zuse made his first machine, the Z1, in his parents' living room. The Z1 was a mechanical computer and was the first computer to use binary. He used it to explore multiple ideas including high-capacity memory and floating-point arithmetics. However, his ideas were not fully completed in the Z1. He expanded on and added more to each of his following Z Series computers.

After the Z2, Konrad Zuse made what is considered to be his most important computer: the Z3. The Z3 weas desdigneds froim 1938-1941. It was the world's first fully programmable and functional digital computer. Like Dr. Zuse's earlier computers, the Z3 used binary and was able to computate floating point arthimetics. The Z3 computer, despite how revolutionary it was, was lost during World War II. Dr. Zuse and his work was widely forgotten for years.

Dr. Zuse went on to make several more computers in the Z Series including the Z4 and the Z23.

Hardvard Mark I

The Hardvard Mark I was a computer created by IBM and used by Hardvard University. It was shipped to the Universty in February 1944. The Mark I was fully automated and digital. Making it the first digital computer to be available in the United States. Seeing as it was very reliable and automatic, the Mark I is generally considerd the true "dawn of the computer age."

The Mark I was bulit using 750,000 components and had hundreds of miles (about 500) of wiring. The computer read instructions from paper tape. It could do three additions or subtractions per second, while a multiplication took six seconds and a division problem took over 15 seconds.

The Mark I has now been disassembled, though parts of it remain .Unlike the ENIAC, the Mark I was digital.

ENIAC

ENIAC was developed by the "Army Ordinance" (specifically John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert) to complete ammunition statistics during World War II. It is often considered to be the world's first digital computer, despite the fact that it came out nearly five years after Dr. Zuse's Z3. The ENIAc also led to many improvements on the vacuum tube.

The ENIAC consisted of about 17,468 vaccum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000 manual switches, 5 million soldered joints, and and weighed 30 tons. With this, a March 1949 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine made the hilarious prediction that is laughed at often today:

In one second, 5,000 additions, 357 multiplications, or 38 divisions, could be preformed by the ENIAC.

At 11:45 p.m., October 2, 1955, the power was shut off, thus retiring the ENIAC.