History of Computing

The history of technology can be traced back to the invention of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine in 1837. This invention anticipated virtually every aspect of present-day computers. The idea of the Analytical Engine came after Babbage designed the first prototype for the difference engine and the first drawing of the Analytical Engine is dated in September 1834.

Had the machine been built, there would have been just one essential feature of present-day computers absent from the design; the 'stored-program' concept. The program was stored on read-only memory, specifically in the form of punch cards. Babbage had learned this idea from Joseph Jacquard early in the century. One set of cards would program the mill, telling it which operation to perform. Another set would store the numbers to be acted upon.

The machine was designed to calculate the numerical value or values of any formula or function for which the user would instruct it what operation to perform. It was designed to have a memory with a capacity of one-thousand 50-digit numbers and to perform the rules of arithmetic in any order previously stated by the user, and any number of times and on any quantities.

The Analytical Engine was to print the results, to avoid the errors and unreliability of copying and transferring the results from the computer to paper. The engine was designed for analytical purposes and was not really developed to answer simple easily solved problems - as the method was too long winded.

Babbage continued to work on the design for years, however after 1840 the changes were very small.

1842.	The Analytical Engine was deemed too complicated to be built and the project was cancelled due to the cost. However, his son Henry continued work on the engine later in the century.
1843.	Babbages work did contribute to one successful venture. It inspired a Swedish printer George Scheutz and his son Edvard Scheutz to produce a 3rd order difference engine with printer. The engine was designed to calculate differences and print tables. The project was funded by the Swedish government.
1853.	The Scheutzes completed the first full-scale difference engine, which they called a Tabul-ating Machine.
1871.	Babbage produced a prototype section of the Analytical Engine printer and mill.
1878.	In New York, Ramon Verea invented a calculator with an internal multiplication table. It was never put into production.
1879.	The Analytical engine was left incomplete and a committee finally decided that the feasibility of completing the engine was too small.
1885.	Frank Baldwin of the US and T. Odhner of Russia designed a multiplying calculator more compact than the Arithmometer that entered mass production in 1820 (designed by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar). The design was small and simple, easy to operate and inexpensive, so that anyone needing a mechanical aid could acquire one.
1886.	Dorr E. Felt of Chicago designed the first calculator where each operation was entered by pressing keys rather than having to be for example dialled in. Felt knew his machine must calculate faster than was mentally possible. This calculator was named the Comptometer.
1889.	The first printing desk calculator was invented by Felt.
1889.	A 19-year-old Frenchman, Leon Bollee of Le Mans, built his own machine, A Calculer. The machine was a direct multiplier, using the principle of a built-in multiplication table.
1890.	Herman Hollerith an engineer from Columbia university was toying with machines that could compile statistical information. He entered these machines in a competition held by the Census Bureau to determine which of all available methods would be best for the next census. The Hollerith Electrical Tabulating System was the overwhelming winner. All information about each individual was punched into a single card, the tabulator could then be wired so that different information could be counted at each pass of the card though the machine. Although slow by today's standards, this was exactly what was needed to make order out of the uncontrolled mass of data.
After masses of government census data had been quickly and automatically processed by the Hollerith machines, large industries now began applying the machines to their own data-handling problems.
1892.	William Burroughs invented a machine similar to Felt's but it was more robust. This was the start of the office calculator industry.
1906.	Charles's son Henry Babbage, completed the mill of his father's Analytical Engine, to prove it would have worked. Although it did work the complete machine was never produced.
1914.	With the advent of WWI, large amounts of information were needed. Electric accounting machines were the answer. However, no radically new concepts evolved from the data processing industry from 1890 to the late 1930's. Nevertheless some very significant technological discoveries were made within the communications and electronics industries which ultimately had profound effects upon the course of data processing.
1935.	IBM (formed 1924) www.ibm.com introduced the IBM 601 machine capable of multiplying in 1 second. The machine was important both in scientific and commercial computation and about 1500 were eventually made.
1937.	Alan Turing published a paper on 'computable numbers' - the mathematical theory of computation. The paper solved a mathematical problem and the solution was the simplified computer known today as the Turing Machine. The Turing Machine was important to the development of the modern digital computer.
1937	Howard Aiken proposed a new kind of calculating machine. He wrote in his proposal, "There exist problems beyond our ability to solve, not because of theoretical difficulties, but because of insufficient means of mechanical computation."
1939.	In 1939, a group from Bell Labs, under the direction of George Stibitz began work upon the first of three mathematical calculators. The first, was called the Complex Number Computer, and was completed in 1940, by Stibitz and Samual Williams. It was designed for the multiplication and division of complex numbers, and could perform one addition of subtraction every three tenths of a second.
1941.	John Atanasoff and Berry completed a special-purpose calculator for solving systems of simultaneous linear equations, later called the 'ABC' (Atanasoff-Berry Computer).
1943.	Howard H. Aiken and his team at Harvard University completed the 'ASCC Mark 1' (The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator) also called the 'Harvard Mark 1.' This electromechanical machine was the first programmable calculator to be widely known. It was designed to perform computations automatically following a sequence of instructions prepared by a programmer.
1943.	Max Newman, Wynn-Williams, and their team (including Alan Turing) completed the Heath Robinson at the secret Government Code and Cypher School ('Station X') Bletchley Park. This was a specialised machine for cipher-breaking, not a general-purpose calculator or computer but some sort of logic device, using a combination of electronics and relay logic.
1943.	The earliest Programmable Computer was run (in Britain), built by Dr Thomas Flowers and his team at Bletchley Park, and was called the ColossusV. The Colossus was built to decode the German Lorenz (SZ42) cipher used by the 'Enigma' machines.
The Colossus was used at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. 10 Colossi were eventually built.
1945.	John von Neumann drafted a report describing the future computer and eventually built the 'Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer.' It was the first description of the design of a stored-program computer, and gave rise to the term 'von Neumann computer.' He suggested that instructions for the computer, previously entered on punched paper tape, or by plugboards, could be stored in the computer's electronic memory as numbers and treated exactly the same as numerical data. For the first time the logical programme sequence was chosen from inside the computer, and instructions could be modified as the programme continued.
1945.	John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert and their team completed a secret project for the US Army's Ballistics Research Lab, they completed the 'Electronic, Numerator, Integrator, Analyser, and Computer' (ENIAC). The ENIAC resembled the Harvard Mark 1, but the components are entirely electronic.
1947.	Aiken and his team completed the 'Harvard Mark II,' it was a large programmable calculator.
1948.	Newman, Freddie C. Williams and their team at Manchester University, Manchester completed their prototype machine, the Small Scale Experimental machine or 'Baby.' Based on Jon von Neumann's ideas about stored program computers, this was the first machine to store both it's programs and data in RAM, as modern computers do. By 1949 the 'Baby' had grown. It acquired a magnetic drum for permanent storage, and became known as the Manchester Mark 1. The Ferranti MArK 1 was essentially the same design but was made for commercial sale and hence ran much faster.
1949.	Maurice Wilkes and his team at Cambridge University completed the first full-scale operational stored-program computer, and it is therefore the final candidate for the title of 'the first computer.' It's main memory was of the same type that had existed for some years, however the 'ultrasonic delay line' memory had never been used for a computing machine before.
1949.	Aiken's team completed the 'Harvard Mark III.' This computer had separate magnetic drum memories for the data and the instructions.
1950.	The 'Pilot ACE' (pilot for an 'Automatic Computer Engine) was completed by a group at the National Physical Laboratory. This had been largely designed by Turing when he was there between 1945-47.
1950.	A group from the US National Bureau of Standards, Washington, completed the 'SEAC' (Standards Eastern Automatic Computer). The design was kept very simple for the sake of its speed.
1950.	The western counterpart of 'SEAC' titled 'SWAC' from Los Angeles, it was completed and became the fastest computer in the world.
1951.	Presper Eckert and Mauchly completed the first 'UNIVAC', the first commercially successful electronic computer, it was also the first general purpose computer - designed to handle both numeric and textual information. This machine marked the real beginning of the computer era.
In 1953 it was estimated that there were approximately 100 computers in the world.
Second Generation Computers
Second generation Computers were built between 1959 and 1964. They were based upon transistors and printed circuits - resulting in much smaller computers.
Third Generation Computers
Third Generation Computers were built between 1964 and 1972. They were based upon the first integrated circuits - creating even smaller machines.
1964.	The IBM 360 was launched - it was the first series of compatible computers, that could use the same software and peripherals. The system also gave appeal to remote computing with terminals communicating to the host via phone lines. The 360 was regarded by many as the first genuine computer system. It established IBM as the number one business computer supplier of the day and could be found everywhere during the 1970's.
1964.	The first Mini Computer was built by Digital EquipmentCost (DEC), it cost $16,000 to buy.
1965.	The first computer mouse was invented by Douglas Englebart, however it did not become popular until 1983. The mouse began as a simple wooden house with wheels placed at right angles to track cursor movement when rolled over a flat surface. The modern mouse uses tiny wheels (mechanical rollers placed at right angles), and optical signals produced by Logitech, the leading mouse manufacturer.
1965.	The first supercomputer was developed - Control Data CD6600, by Seymour Cray.
1970.	A military network called ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency network) was formed. It was seen as a resource sharing computer network among its contractors. The ARPAnet formed the basis of what is now known as the Internet. It opened to non-military users later in 1972 when many universities and businesses went online. Dr Glen Culler, one of the original pioneers of interactive computing was one of the original four nodes of ARPAnet. He saw the computer as an extension of the human intuition and intellect and envisioned users sitting at the computer to solve problems by interacting directly with the machine.
Fourth Generation Computers
All computers built after 1972 are called Fourth Generation Computers. They were based upon Large Scale Integration (LSI) circuits (such as microprocessors).
1973.	1973. Ethernet was developed, this became a very popular way of connecting PC's and other computers together, it enabled them to share data, and devices such as printers. A group of machines connected together in this way is known as a LAN. The first experimenal Ethernet system was developed by Bob Metcalf and David Boggs of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre.
1974.	The MITS Altair 8080 ( www.hyperweb.com/altair) was made commercially available, this was the first personal computer or 'hobbiest'. It was part of the open Architecture that made the PC successful.
1975.	IBM introduced the first laser printer. The first colour versions came onto the market in 1988.
1975.	Microsoft was formed by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. It was to become one of the most successful computing companies. Microsofts big break came when they were asked to write the operating system for the IBM PC released in 1981.
1976.	Apple Computer Inc (www.apple.com) was Founded, by Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs when they designed what would become Apple I.
1976.	Cray 1 was the first commercially developed Supercomputer. Such Supercomputers are used for weather forecasting, complex maths and physics problems, and animation in modern films.
1977.	The Apple II debuted in a local computer trade show. It was the first personal computer to come in a plastic case and include colour graphics.
1978.	The Commodore Pet was introduced.
The Arcade Video game 'space invaders' was released beginning a video game craze that has continued ever since. The Space Invaders phenomenon stunned conservative adults who were certain the games soured the minds of their youngsters. Space Invaders was the first arcade game to work it's way out of the arcades and into pizza parlours and ice cream shops. In 1980 Atari's Asteroids proved very popular, particularly due to the fact it allowed the user to record high scores, that could be recorded and stored for other users to try to beat. By 1982 many 'classics' had been released including 'Packman'(link to Sony Screensaver).
1979.	The compact disc was invented.
1979.	The market was being dominated by new personal computers including Apple II and the Commodore PET. IBM therefore commenced work on their own PC.
1981.	IBM announced their standard model PC, which becomes an overnight success despite being entered into an already crowded field.
1982.	The commodore 64 is released.
1983.	IBM produced the PC Junior in an attempt to get further into the home market. Cheaper alternatives from other companies proved more attractive however businesses continued to buy their products from IBM.
1984.	Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com ) released the very popular laserjet printer. HP created Printer Command Language (PCL) to provide an efficient way to control printer features across a number of different printing devices. PCL was originally devised for HP's dot-matrix and inkjet printers. The first printer in HP's LaserJet series,was the "HP LaserJet." By 1993 they had sold over 10 million printers.
1984.	The Apple Macintosh computer was released. The design of the old mac is one of the few classic designs in the computer world and is still unique.
1984.	The CD-ROM was invented by Phillips and produced in collaboration with Sony (www.sony.com ).
1985.	Microsoft Windows was launched, however its impact and use was not recognised until version 3 was released in 1990 (www.microsoft.com/uk ).
1985.	Amstrad (www.amstrad.com ) announced Amstrad PC1512. This was a cheap and powerful PC that cost under £1000. To ensure the computer was attainable the manuals were made user friendly, so that they could be read by everyone and they also included a mouse that made the package more user friendly. It was sold in high street shops and was a complete success and was bought by both businesses and homes.
1986.	Introduction of the Acorn Archimedes computer. The Archimedes was one of the first RISC (Reduced Instruction Code) home computers. The Archimedes was popular in Great Britain and Acorn received many orders from universities. They failed more or less in the rest of the world.
1989.	Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. He saw the need for a global information exchange that would allow physiscists to collaborate on research. The web resulted from the integration of hypertext and the Internet. The hyperlinked pages provided access to older Internet facilities. The web originally consisted purely of text only, however after it was represented as a graphical interface for it and it's popularity exploded as it became more accessible.
1990.	Bill Gates and Microsoft introduced Windows 3.0. It was an example of multitasking. Various improvements were made in the software, but the major improvements were in the Windows '95 version that combined technology from Windows 3. With that from Windows NT.
1993.	Commercial providers were allowed to sell internet connections to individuals. It was a huge success, especially with the new interface of the web.
1993.	Intel Pentium was released (www.intel.com).
1995.	Windows '95 was launched by Bill Gates and Microsoft. Windows '95 was an entire operating system and proved very popular.
1995.	Javascript was announced. It is a programming language developed by Netscape Communications Corp. (www.netscape.com ) and Sun Microsystems (www.sun.com ). JavaScript is useful for adding interactivity to the World Wide Web
1996.	Netscape Navigator 2.0 was released, this was the first browser to support Javascript.
1996.	The video games market continued to boom, new releases included 'Civilization 2,' 'Command & Conquer - Red Alert,' 'Grand Prix 2,' and 'Tomb Raider'.
1997.	'Grand Theft Auto' (www.grandtheftauto.co.uk), 'Quake 2' and 'Blade Runner' and 'Tomb Raider' (www.tombraider.com ) featuring Lara Croft were all released.
1997.	Intel released their Pentium II processor.
1998.	Microsoft released Windows '98.
1999.	Web security was made even easier due to relaxed export regulations. The US Government announced new encryption export regulations, allowing US companies to export encryption products to commercial firms, individuals and other non-government users without a licence. The implications for the UK are that any encryption commodity or software, can now be exported under a licence exemption to any non-government end-user in any country.
2000.	Windows 2000 was launched. It is claimed to be faster and more reliable than previous versions of windows.
The advancement of computing has built on all that has gone before it and has led to today's electronic, stored program digital computer.

Alan Turing

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/history.htm

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Bletchley Park

The site of Bletchley Park

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk

Back to 1943 

The Colossus

Built in Bletchley Park the Colossus was two years ahead of the American ENIAC so often claimed as the first full-scale electronic calculator.

http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/ccc/bpark/morebpark.htm

Back to 1943

The Lorenze Cipher Machine

Hitler used this machine for strategic commands, thinking it was absolutely secure. The Lorenz machine cipher was broken at Bletchley Park, when the worlds earliest programmable computer was run.  The Lorenz Cipher was not captured until 1945.

http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/ccc/bpark/morebpark.htm

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Enigma

An example of the Enigma machine used by the German Military Services.  The Germans thought the enigma ciphers were unbreakable.

http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/ccc/bpark/morebpark.htm

Back to 1943

*All photographs provided by Bletchley Park Museum