History

Computer history goes back a long way, and often surprising

Far from being a 20th century invention, computers of some form or another have actually been with us since the early 1200s, when Al Jazari’s astronomical clock was able to mark the passage of time automatically, and operate ‘robot’ musicians using water-powered mechanisms. Not a PC by any means, but still a man-made device that performed a routine automatically.

Moving into the Renaissance, mechanical calculators were created. Descended from the ancient abacus, they weren’t computers in the traditional sense because they didn’t run on a program; but nonetheless they performed calculations automatically and accurately – one potential application was completing sums for navigation tables.

Learn about the earliest computers

Surprisingly, a major advance in computing actually came from the world of weaving in the 19th century. Joseph Marie Jacquard tinkered with the design of his looms and added a system of punched paper cards that allowed the machines to weave complex patterns – a forerunner of programming, in other words, which is one of the cornerstones of modern computing.

The first design for a machine that could be programmed was drawn up by Charles Babbage in the mid 19th century, but a working version wasn’t built until the 1930s. Alan Turing’s machines and theories developed the ideas of computing and algorithms that lie at the heart of today’s PCs. He is widely regarded as the father of modern computing.

How computer history helped define our present

From the 1940s onwards, possibly driven by the pressures of war, computing really accelerated. Konrad Zuse built the first working computer in 1941; transistors,  microprocessors and fully programmable machines would follow within 30 years. The machine on your desk right now has its roots in the advances made in the 40s and 50s; as does the smartphone in your pocket!

Where computers will go next is an exciting question – the tools we use now will probably seem as primitive as an abacus to users in the future…