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Do you know who invented the first Computer? Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or more geniuses like Alan Turing or Konrad Zuse. The answer is neither one of them. Have you heard of Charles Babbage? Charles Babbage was a Philosopher and Mathematician born in 1791. During the first half of the 19th Century he attempted to built a machine called the “Difference Engine” or “Differential Engine”. It was a type of mechanical calculator consisting of a large number of mechanical parts and its job was to perform computations on sets of numbers. So, some people argue that Charles Babbage is the father of the modern computer and not Allan Turing or Konrad Zuse.
Due to its extreme cost and some other disputes with locals and politicians of his times, Babbage was not able to built the Difference Engine. However, his idea became the foundation of modern computers, and his Difference Engine project was completed by the Science Museum in London in 1991. And it is a fully functional Difference Engine.
The problem with the Difference Engine was that it could only perform calculations and was not able to check the results and perform different operations on a set of numbers as desired. Therefore, with greater plans, Charles Babbage came up with the idea of developing another engine called “the Analytical Engine”. The Analytical Engine was a gigantic machine, the size of a room, it had its own CPU, memory and was programmable through punch cards, but unfortunately, it wasn’t completed. However, later on, his son, Henry Babbage was able to complete a portion of this enormous machine and was functional. After 150 years, the Science Museum of London plans to build the Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. One might ask that whether Charles Babbage would have been able to build such a majestic machine back then.
Who invented the first programmable computer?
Konrad Zuse, a German Scientist, during 1936 and 1938 built the Z1. Which was considered as the first Programmable Computer.
Ideas that lead to the development of modern computers:
Alan Turing, in 1936, proposed the idea of the “the Turing Machine”. This lead to the foundations of the modern days Computers.
Who invented the first Digital Computer?
J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly were the first to invent “the ENIAC” at the University of Pennsylvania and was completed in 1946. The ENIAC was a gigantic computer, it weighed almost 50 tons and was accommodated in a building with 18,000 Vacuum Tubes. So, the ENIAC is considered as the world’s first Digital Computer.
Which is the earliest computer company?
The first official and earliest computer company was established by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchy and was known as “the Electronic Controls Company”. Later on, it was renamed to “Eckert – Mauchly Computer Corporation” (EMCC). The UNIVAC Mainframe Computers were released by EMCC.
Which one is the first commercial Computer?
The first commercial computer is Z4, developed by Kondrad Zuse in 1942.
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