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History of computers: A brief timeline

The history of computers began with primitive designs in the early 19th century and went on to change the world during the 20th century.

• 2000-present day

Additional resources

The history of computers goes back over 200 years. At first theorized by mathematicians and entrepreneurs, during the 19th century mechanical calculating machines were designed and built to solve the increasingly complex number-crunching challenges. The advancement of technology enabled ever more-complex computers by the early 20th century, and computers became larger and more powerful.

Today, computers are almost unrecognizable from designs of the 19th century, such as Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine — or even from the huge computers of the 20th century that occupied whole rooms, such as the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator.  

Here's a brief history of computers, from their primitive number-crunching origins to the powerful modern-day machines that surf the Internet, run games and stream multimedia. 

19th century

1801: Joseph Marie Jacquard, a French merchant and inventor invents a loom that uses punched wooden cards to automatically weave fabric designs. Early computers would use similar punch cards.

1821: English mathematician Charles Babbage conceives of a steam-driven calculating machine that would be able to compute tables of numbers. Funded by the British government, the project, called the "Difference Engine" fails due to the lack of technology at the time, according to the University of Minnesota . 

1848: Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician and the daughter of poet Lord Byron, writes the world's first computer program. According to Anna Siffert, a professor of theoretical mathematics at the University of Münster in Germany, Lovelace writes the first program while translating a paper on Babbage's Analytical Engine from French into English. "She also provides her own comments on the text. Her annotations, simply called "notes," turn out to be three times as long as the actual transcript," Siffert wrote in an article for The Max Planck Society . "Lovelace also adds a step-by-step description for computation of Bernoulli numbers with Babbage's machine — basically an algorithm — which, in effect, makes her the world's first computer programmer." Bernoulli numbers are a sequence of rational numbers often used in computation.

1853: Swedish inventor Per Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard design the world's first printing calculator. The machine is significant for being the first to "compute tabular differences and print the results," according to Uta C. Merzbach's book, " Georg Scheutz and the First Printing Calculator " (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977).

1890: Herman Hollerith designs a punch-card system to help calculate the 1890 U.S. Census. The machine,  saves the government several years of calculations, and the U.S. taxpayer approximately $5 million, according to Columbia University  Hollerith later establishes a company that will eventually become International Business Machines Corporation ( IBM ).

Early 20th century

1931: At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Vannevar Bush invents and builds the Differential Analyzer, the first large-scale automatic general-purpose mechanical analog computer, according to Stanford University . 

1936: Alan Turing , a British scientist and mathematician, presents the principle of a universal machine, later called the Turing machine, in a paper called "On Computable Numbers…" according to Chris Bernhardt's book " Turing's Vision " (The MIT Press, 2017). Turing machines are capable of computing anything that is computable. The central concept of the modern computer is based on his ideas. Turing is later involved in the development of the Turing-Welchman Bombe, an electro-mechanical device designed to decipher Nazi codes during World War II, according to the UK's National Museum of Computing . 

1937: John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa State University, submits a grant proposal to build the first electric-only computer, without using gears, cams, belts or shafts.

1939: David Packard and Bill Hewlett found the Hewlett Packard Company in Palo Alto, California. The pair decide the name of their new company by the toss of a coin, and Hewlett-Packard's first headquarters are in Packard's garage, according to MIT . 

1941: German inventor and engineer Konrad Zuse completes his Z3 machine, the world's earliest digital computer, according to Gerard O'Regan's book " A Brief History of Computing " (Springer, 2021). The machine was destroyed during a bombing raid on Berlin during World War II. Zuse fled the German capital after the defeat of Nazi Germany and later released the world's first commercial digital computer, the Z4, in 1950, according to O'Regan. 

1941: Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, design the first digital electronic computer in the U.S., called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). This marks the first time a computer is able to store information on its main memory, and is capable of performing one operation every 15 seconds, according to the book " Birthing the Computer " (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016)

1945: Two professors at the University of Pennsylvania, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, design and build the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC). The machine is the first "automatic, general-purpose, electronic, decimal, digital computer," according to Edwin D. Reilly's book "Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology" (Greenwood Press, 2003). 

1946: Mauchly and Presper leave the University of Pennsylvania and receive funding from the Census Bureau to build the UNIVAC, the first commercial computer for business and government applications.

1947: William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Laboratories invent the transistor . They discover how to make an electric switch with solid materials and without the need for a vacuum.

1949: A team at the University of Cambridge develops the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), "the first practical stored-program computer," according to O'Regan. "EDSAC ran its first program in May 1949 when it calculated a table of squares and a list of prime numbers ," O'Regan wrote. In November 1949, scientists with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), now called CSIRO, build Australia's first digital computer called the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer (CSIRAC). CSIRAC is the first digital computer in the world to play music, according to O'Regan.

Late 20th century

1953: Grace Hopper develops the first computer language, which eventually becomes known as COBOL, which stands for COmmon, Business-Oriented Language according to the National Museum of American History . Hopper is later dubbed the "First Lady of Software" in her posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom citation. Thomas Johnson Watson Jr., son of IBM CEO Thomas Johnson Watson Sr., conceives the IBM 701 EDPM to help the United Nations keep tabs on Korea during the war.

1954: John Backus and his team of programmers at IBM publish a paper describing their newly created FORTRAN programming language, an acronym for FORmula TRANslation, according to MIT .

1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the integrated circuit, known as the computer chip. Kilby is later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work.

1968: Douglas Engelbart reveals a prototype of the modern computer at the Fall Joint Computer Conference, San Francisco. His presentation, called "A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect" includes a live demonstration of his computer, including a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI), according to the Doug Engelbart Institute . This marks the development of the computer from a specialized machine for academics to a technology that is more accessible to the general public.

1969: Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and a group of other developers at Bell Labs produce UNIX, an operating system that made "large-scale networking of diverse computing systems — and the internet — practical," according to Bell Labs .. The team behind UNIX continued to develop the operating system using the C programming language, which they also optimized. 

1970: The newly formed Intel unveils the Intel 1103, the first Dynamic Access Memory (DRAM) chip.

1971: A team of IBM engineers led by Alan Shugart invents the "floppy disk," enabling data to be shared among different computers.

1972: Ralph Baer, a German-American engineer, releases Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first home game console, in September 1972 , according to the Computer Museum of America . Months later, entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell and engineer Al Alcorn with Atari release Pong, the world's first commercially successful video game. 

1973: Robert Metcalfe, a member of the research staff for Xerox, develops Ethernet for connecting multiple computers and other hardware.

1977: The Commodore Personal Electronic Transactor (PET), is released onto the home computer market, featuring an MOS Technology 8-bit 6502 microprocessor, which controls the screen, keyboard and cassette player. The PET is especially successful in the education market, according to O'Regan.

1975: The magazine cover of the January issue of "Popular Electronics" highlights the Altair 8080 as the "world's first minicomputer kit to rival commercial models." After seeing the magazine issue, two "computer geeks," Paul Allen and Bill Gates, offer to write software for the Altair, using the new BASIC language. On April 4, after the success of this first endeavor, the two childhood friends form their own software company, Microsoft.

1976: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak co-found Apple Computer on April Fool's Day. They unveil Apple I, the first computer with a single-circuit board and ROM (Read Only Memory), according to MIT .

1977: Radio Shack began its initial production run of 3,000 TRS-80 Model 1 computers — disparagingly known as the "Trash 80" — priced at $599, according to the National Museum of American History. Within a year, the company took 250,000 orders for the computer, according to the book " How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution " (The Seeker Books, 2007).

1977: The first West Coast Computer Faire is held in San Francisco. Jobs and Wozniak present the Apple II computer at the Faire, which includes color graphics and features an audio cassette drive for storage.

1978: VisiCalc, the first computerized spreadsheet program is introduced.

1979: MicroPro International, founded by software engineer Seymour Rubenstein, releases WordStar, the world's first commercially successful word processor. WordStar is programmed by Rob Barnaby, and includes 137,000 lines of code, according to Matthew G. Kirschenbaum's book " Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing " (Harvard University Press, 2016).

1981: "Acorn," IBM's first personal computer, is released onto the market at a price point of $1,565, according to IBM. Acorn uses the MS-DOS operating system from Windows. Optional features include a display, printer, two diskette drives, extra memory, a game adapter and more.

1983: The Apple Lisa, standing for "Local Integrated Software Architecture" but also the name of Steve Jobs' daughter, according to the National Museum of American History ( NMAH ), is the first personal computer to feature a GUI. The machine also includes a drop-down menu and icons. Also this year, the Gavilan SC is released and is the first portable computer with a flip-form design and the very first to be sold as a "laptop."

1984: The Apple Macintosh is announced to the world during a Superbowl advertisement. The Macintosh is launched with a retail price of $2,500, according to the NMAH. 

1985 : As a response to the Apple Lisa's GUI, Microsoft releases Windows in November 1985, the Guardian reported . Meanwhile, Commodore announces the Amiga 1000.

1989: Tim Berners-Lee, a British researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research ( CERN ), submits his proposal for what would become the World Wide Web. His paper details his ideas for Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), the building blocks of the Web. 

1993: The Pentium microprocessor advances the use of graphics and music on PCs.

1996: Sergey Brin and Larry Page develop the Google search engine at Stanford University.

1997: Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple, which at the time is struggling financially.  This investment ends an ongoing court case in which Apple accused Microsoft of copying its operating system. 

1999: Wi-Fi, the abbreviated term for "wireless fidelity" is developed, initially covering a distance of up to 300 feet (91 meters) Wired reported . 

21st century

2001: Mac OS X, later renamed OS X then simply macOS, is released by Apple as the successor to its standard Mac Operating System. OS X goes through 16 different versions, each with "10" as its title, and the first nine iterations are nicknamed after big cats, with the first being codenamed "Cheetah," TechRadar reported.  

2003: AMD's Athlon 64, the first 64-bit processor for personal computers, is released to customers. 

2004: The Mozilla Corporation launches Mozilla Firefox 1.0. The Web browser is one of the first major challenges to Internet Explorer, owned by Microsoft. During its first five years, Firefox exceeded a billion downloads by users, according to the Web Design Museum . 

2005: Google buys Android, a Linux-based mobile phone operating system

2006: The MacBook Pro from Apple hits the shelves. The Pro is the company's first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer. 

2009: Microsoft launches Windows 7 on July 22. The new operating system features the ability to pin applications to the taskbar, scatter windows away by shaking another window, easy-to-access jumplists, easier previews of tiles and more, TechRadar reported .  

2010: The iPad, Apple's flagship handheld tablet, is unveiled.

2011: Google releases the Chromebook, which runs on Google Chrome OS.

2015: Apple releases the Apple Watch. Microsoft releases Windows 10.

2016: The first reprogrammable quantum computer was created. "Until now, there hasn't been any quantum-computing platform that had the capability to program new algorithms into their system. They're usually each tailored to attack a particular algorithm," said study lead author Shantanu Debnath, a quantum physicist and optical engineer at the University of Maryland, College Park.

2017: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a new "Molecular Informatics" program that uses molecules as computers. "Chemistry offers a rich set of properties that we may be able to harness for rapid, scalable information storage and processing," Anne Fischer, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office, said in a statement. "Millions of molecules exist, and each molecule has a unique three-dimensional atomic structure as well as variables such as shape, size, or even color. This richness provides a vast design space for exploring novel and multi-value ways to encode and process data beyond the 0s and 1s of current logic-based, digital architectures."

2019: A team at Google became the first to demonstrate quantum supremacy — creating a quantum computer that could feasibly outperform the most powerful classical computer — albeit for a very specific problem with no practical real-world application. The described the computer, dubbed "Sycamore" in a paper that same year in the journal Nature . Achieving quantum advantage – in which a quantum computer solves a problem with real-world applications faster than the most powerful classical computer —  is still a ways off. 

2022: The first exascale supercomputer, and the world's fastest, Frontier, went online at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) in Tennessee. Built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) at the cost of $600 million, Frontier uses nearly 10,000 AMD EPYC 7453 64-core CPUs alongside nearly 40,000 AMD Radeon Instinct MI250X GPUs. This machine ushered in the era of exascale computing, which refers to systems that can reach more than one exaFLOP of power – used to measure the performance of a system. Only one machine – Frontier – is currently capable of reaching such levels of performance. It is currently being used as a tool to aid scientific discovery.

What is the first computer in history?

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, designed in the 1820s, is considered the first "mechanical" computer in history, according to the Science Museum in the U.K . Powered by steam with a hand crank, the machine calculated a series of values and printed the results in a table. 

What are the five generations of computing?

The "five generations of computing" is a framework for assessing the entire history of computing and the key technological advancements throughout it. 

The first generation, spanning the 1940s to the 1950s, covered vacuum tube-based machines. The second then progressed to incorporate transistor-based computing between the 50s and the 60s. In the 60s and 70s, the third generation gave rise to integrated circuit-based computing. We are now in between the fourth and fifth generations of computing, which are microprocessor-based and AI-based computing.

What is the most powerful computer in the world?

As of November 2023, the most powerful computer in the world is the Frontier supercomputer . The machine, which can reach a performance level of up to 1.102 exaFLOPS, ushered in the age of exascale computing in 2022 when it went online at Tennessee's  Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) 

There is, however, a potentially more powerful supercomputer waiting in the wings in the form of the Aurora supercomputer, which is housed at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) outside of Chicago.  Aurora went online in November 2023. Right now, it lags far behind Frontier, with performance levels of just 585.34 petaFLOPS (roughly half the performance of Frontier), although it's still not finished. When work is completed, the supercomputer is expected to reach performance levels higher than 2 exaFLOPS.

What was the first killer app?

Killer apps are widely understood to be those so essential that they are core to the technology they run on. There have been so many through the years – from Word for Windows in 1989 to iTunes in 2001 to social media apps like WhatsApp in more recent years

Several pieces of software may stake a claim to be the first killer app, but there is a broad consensus that VisiCalc, a spreadsheet program created by VisiCorp and originally released for the Apple II in 1979, holds that title. Steve Jobs even credits this app for propelling the Apple II to become the success it was, according to co-creator Dan Bricklin .

• Fortune: A Look Back At 40 Years of Apple
• The New Yorker: The First Windows
• " A Brief History of Computing " by Gerard O'Regan (Springer, 2021)

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Timothy is Editor in Chief of print and digital magazines All About History and History of War . He has previously worked on sister magazine All About Space , as well as photography and creative brands including Digital Photographer and 3D Artist . He has also written for How It Works magazine, several history bookazines and has a degree in English Literature from Bath Spa University . 

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Biography of Charles Babbage, Mathematician and Computer Pioneer

The Father of Computing

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Charles Babbage (December 26, 1791–October 18, 1871) was an English mathematician and inventor who is credited with having conceptualized the first digital programmable computer. Designed in 1821, Babbage’s “Difference Engine No. 1” was the first successful, error-free automatic calculating machine and is considered to be the inspiration for modern programmable computers. Often called the “Father of the Computer,” Babbage was also a prolific writer, with a wide number of interests including mathematics, engineering, economics, politics, and technology.

Fast Facts: Charles Babbage

• Known For: Originated the concept of a digital programmable computer.
• Also Known As: The Father of Computing
• Born: December 26, 1791 in London, England
• Parents: Benjamin Babbage and Elizabeth Pumleigh Teape
• Died: October 18, 1871 in London, England
• Education: Cambridge University
• Published Works: Passages from the Life of a Philosopher , Reflections on the Decline of Science in Englan d
• Awards and Honors: Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Spouse: Georgiana Whitmore
• Children: Dugald, Benjamin, and Henry
• Notable Quote: “The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more durable than those which result from unsound reasoning respecting true data.”

Early Life and Education

Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1791, in London, England, the eldest of four children born to London banker Benjamin Babbage and Elizabeth Pumleigh Teape. Only Charles and his sister Mary Ann survived early childhood. The Babbage family was fairly well-to-do, and as the only surviving son, Charles had private tutors and was sent to the best schools, including Exeter, Enfield, Totnes, and Oxford before finally entering Trinity College at Cambridge in 1810.

At Trinity, Babbage read mathematics, and in 1812 he joined Peterhouse at Cambridge University, where he was the top mathematician. While at Peterhouse, he co-founded the Analytical Society, a more-or-less mock scientific society comprised of some of the best known young scientists in England. He also joined less-scholarly oriented student societies such as The Ghost Club, concerned with the investigation of supernatural phenomena, and the Extractors Club, dedicated to freeing its members from mental institutions they referred to as “madhouses,” should any be committed to one.

Though he had been the top mathematician, Babbage did not graduate from Peterhouse at Cambridge with honors. Due to a dispute over the suitability of his final thesis for public review, he instead received a degree without examination in 1814.

After his graduation, Babbage became a lecturer on astronomy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London. He was then elected to a fellowship of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge in 1816.

Babbage’s Path to Calculating Machines

The idea of a machine capable of calculating and printing error-free mathematical tables first came to Babbage in 1812 or 1813. In the early 19th century, navigation, astronomical, and actuarial tables were vital pieces of the burgeoning Industrial Revolution . In navigation, they were used to calculate time, tides, currents, winds, positions of the sun and moon, coastlines, and latitudes. Laboriously constructed by hand at the time, inaccurate tables led to disastrous delays and even loss of ships.

Babbage drew inspiration for his calculating machines from the 1801 Jacquard loom , an automated weaving machine, which was cranked by hand and “programmed” by instructions delivered by punch cards. Having seen the intricate portraits automatically woven into silk by the Jacquard loom, Babbage set out to build an infallible steam-driven or hand-cranked calculating machine that would similarly calculate and print mathematical tables.

The Difference Engines

Babbage began creating a machine to produce mathematical tables mechanically in 1819. In June 1822, he announced his invention to the Royal Astronomical Society in a paper titled “Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables.” He dubbed it Difference Engine No. 1, after the principle of finite differences, the principle behind the mathematical process of resolving polynomial expressions by addition, and thus resolvable by simple machinery. Babbage’s design called for a hand-cranked machine capable of tabulating calculations for up to 20 decimal places.

In 1823, the British government took an interest and gave Babbage £1.700 to start work on the project, hoping his machine would make its task of producing critical mathematical tables less time-consuming and expensive. Although Babbage's design was feasible, the state of metalworking of the era made it too expensive to produce the thousands of precisely-machined parts needed. As a result, the actual cost of building Difference Engine No. 1 far exceeded the government's initial estimate. In 1832, Babbage succeeded in producing a working model of a scaled-down machine capable of tabulating calculations up to only six decimal places, instead of the 20 decimal places envisioned by the original design.

By the time the British government abandoned the Difference Engine No. 1 project in 1842, Babbage was already working on the design for his “Analytical Engine,” a far more complex and programmable calculating machine. Between 1846 and 1849, Babbage produced a design for an improved “Difference Engine No. 2” capable of calculating up to 31 decimal places more quickly and with fewer moving parts.

In 1834, the Swedish printer Per Georg Scheutz successfully constructed a marketable machine based on Babbage's Difference Engine known as the Scheutzian calculation engine. While it was imperfect, weighed half-a-ton, and was the size of a grand piano, the Scheutzian engine was successfully demonstrated in Paris in 1855, and versions were sold to the U.S. and British governments.

The Analytical Engine, a True Computer

By 1834, Babbage had ceased work on the Difference Engine and began to plan for a larger and more comprehensive machine he called the Analytical Engine. Babbage's new machine was an enormous step forward. Capable of calculating more than one mathematical task, it was truly to be what we call “programmable” today.

Much like modern computers, Babbage’s Analytical Engine included an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory. Like the Jacquard loom, which had inspired Babbage years earlier, his Analytical Engine was to be programmed to perform calculations via punched cards. Results—output—would be provided on a printer, a curve plotter, and a bell.

Called the “store,” the Analytical Engine’s memory was to be capable of holding 1,000 numbers of 40 decimal digits each. The engine’s “mill,” like the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) in modern computers, was to be capable of performing all four basic arithmetic operations, plus comparisons and optionally square roots. Similar to a modern computer’s central processing unit (CPU), the mill was to rely on its own internal procedures to carry out the program’s instructions. Babbage even created a programming language to be used with the Analytical Engine. Similar to modern programming languages , it allowed for instruction looping and conditional branching .

Due largely to a lack of funding, Babbage was never able to construct full working versions of any of his calculating machines. Not until 1941, over a century after Babbage had proposed his Analytical Engine, would German mechanical engineer Konrad Zuse demonstrate his Z3 , the world's first working programmable computer.

In 1878, even after declaring Babbage’s Analytical Engine to be "a marvel of mechanical ingenuity,” the executive committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science recommended that it not be constructed. While it acknowledged the usefulness and value of the machine, the committee balked at the estimated cost of building it without any guarantee that it would work correctly.

Babbage and Ada Lovelace, the First Programmer

On June 5, 1883, Babbage met the 17-year-old daughter of famed poet Lord Byron , Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace—better known as “ Ada Lovelace .” Ada and her mother had attended one of Babbage's lectures, and after some correspondence, Babbage invited them to see a small-scale version of the Difference Engine. Ada was fascinated, and she requested and received copies of the blueprints of the Difference Engine. She and her mother visited factories to see other machines at work.

Considered a gifted mathematician in her own right, Ada Lovelace had studied with two of the best mathematicians of her day: Augustus De Morgan and Mary Somerville. When asked to translate Italian engineer Luigi Federico Menabrea’s article on Babbage's Analytical Engine, Ada not only translated the original French text into English but also added her own thoughts and ideas on the machine. In her added notes, she described how the Analytical Engine could be made to process letters and symbols in addition to numbers. She also theorized the process of instruction repetition, or “looping,” an essential function used in computer programs today.

Published in 1843, Ada’s translation and notes described how to program Babbage’s Analytical Engine, essentially making Ada Byron Lovelace the world's first computer programmer.

Marriage and Personal Life

Against his father’s wishes, Babbage married Georgiana Whitmore on July 2, 1814. His father had not wanted his son to marry until he had enough money to support himself, but still promised to give him £300 (£36,175 in 2019) per year for life. The couple eventually had eight children together, only three of whom lived to adulthood.

Over a span of just one year, from 1827 and 1828, tragedy struck Babbage as his father, his second son (Charles), his wife Georgiana, and a newborn son all died. Nearly inconsolable, he went on a long trip through Europe. When his beloved daughter Georgiana died around 1834, the devastated Babbage decided to immerse himself in his work and never remarried.

On the death of his father in 1827, Babbage inherited £100,000 (over $13.2 million U.S. dollars in 2019). To a large degree, the sizable inheritance made it possible for Babbage to dedicate his life to his passion for developing calculating machines.

Since science was not yet recognized as a profession, Babbage was viewed by his contemporaries as a “gentleman scientist,”—a member of a large group of aristocratic amateurs, who by virtue of being independently wealthy, was able to pursue his interests with no outside means of support. Babbage’s interests were by no means limited to mathematics. Between 1813 and 1868, he authored several books and papers on manufacturing, industrial production processes, and international economic politics.

Though never as well-publicized as his calculating machines, Babbage’s other inventions included an ophthalmoscope, a “black box” recorder for railroad catastrophes, a seismograph, an altimeter, and the cow-catcher for preventing damage to the front end of railway locomotives. In addition, he proposed harnessing the tidal movements of the oceans to produce power, a process being developed as a source of renewable energy today.

Though often regarded as an eccentric, Babbage was a superstar in the 1830s London social and intellectual circles. His regular Saturday parties at his home on Dorset Street were considered “don’t miss” affairs. True to his reputation as a charming raconteur, Babbage would captivate his guests with the latest London gossip, and lectures on science, art, literature, philosophy, religion, politics, and art. “All were eager to go to his glorious soirees,” wrote philosopher Harriet Martineau of Babbage’s parties.

Despite his social popularity, Babbage was never mistaken for a diplomat. He often launched vehement public verbal attacks against members of what he considered the “scientific establishment” for its lack of vision. Unfortunately, he sometimes even attacked the very people to whom he was looking for financial or technical support. Indeed, the first biography of his life, written by Maboth Moseley in 1964, is titled “'Irascible Genius: A Life of Charles Babbage, Inventor.”

Death and Legacy

Babbage died at age 79 on October 18, 1871, at his home and laboratory at 1 Dorset Street in London’s Marylebone neighborhood, and was buried in London's Kensal Green Cemetery. Today, half of Babbage's brain is preserved at the Hunterian Museum in the Royal College of Surgeons in London and the other half is on display in the Science Museum, London.

After Babbage’s death, his son Henry continued his father’s work but also failed to build a completely functioning machine. Another of his sons, Benjamin, emigrated to South Australia, where many of Babbage's papers and pieces of his prototypes were discovered in 2015.

In 1991, a fully functional version of Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 was successfully built by Doron Swade, Curator at London's Science Museum. Accurate to 31 digits, with over 4,000 parts, and weighing over three metric tons, it works exactly as Babbage had envisioned 142 years earlier. The printer, completed in 2000, had another 4,000 parts and weighed 2.5 metric tons. Today, Swade is a key team member of the Plan 28 project, the London Science Museum’s attempt to build a full scale working Babbage Analytical Engine.

As he neared the end of his life, Babbage came to grips with the fact that he would never complete a working version of his machine. In his 1864 book, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher , he prophetically affirmed his conviction that his years of work had not gone in vain. 

“If, unwarned by my example, any man shall undertake and shall succeed in really constructing an engine embodying in itself the whole of the executive department of mathematical analysis upon different principles or by simpler mechanical means, I have no fear of leaving my reputation in his charge, for he alone will be fully able to appreciate the nature of my efforts and the value of their results.”

Charles Babbage was one of the most influential figures in the development of technology. His machines served as the intellectual predecessor to a wide range of manufacturing control and computing techniques. In addition, he is considered a significant figure in 19th-century English society. He published six monographs and at least 86 papers, and he gave lectures on topics ranging from cryptography and statistics to the interaction between scientific theory and industrial practices. He had a major influence on noted political and social philosophers including John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx .

Sources and Further Reference

• Babbage, Charles. "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher." The Works of Charles Babbage. Ed. Campbell-Kelly, Martin. Vol. 11. London: William Pickering, 1864. Print.
• Bromley, A. G. "." Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, 1838 Annals of the History of Computing 4.3 (1982): 196–217. Print.
• Cook, Simon. "." Minds, Machines and Economic Agents: Cambridge Receptions of Boole and Babbage Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 36.2 (2005): 331–50. Print.
• Crowley, Mary L. " The 'Difference' in Babbage's Difference Engine ." The Mathematics Teacher 78.5 (1985): 366–54. Print.
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• Published: 08 December 2010

Biography: The ABC of computing

• John Gilbey 1  

Nature volume  468 ,  pages 760–761 ( 2010 ) Cite this article

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An engaging biography of John Atanasoff reveals the obscure origins of the computer, explains John Gilbey.

The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer

• Jane Smiley

Who invented the digital computer? Depending on your definition, mathematical pioneers such as John von Neumann or Alan Turing might spring to mind, but its origin lies with US physicist John Atanasoff. Although few people could name him today, this rewarding biography by Pulitzer prizewinning author Jane Smiley may change that.

Atanasoff embodies the American Dream. The son of a Bulgarian immigrant who had fled to the United States as a child in the late 1880s, he grew up on the family farm in Florida. Through mastering the slide rule, helping his father with house electrical wiring and driving the family's Model T Ford at age 11, he developed a passion for engineering and mathematics.

After graduating from the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1925, with the highest grade average it had ever recorded, Atanasoff joined a master's programme at what is now Iowa State University in Ames. He turned down an offer to move to Harvard University and gained a PhD in physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He returned to Iowa State — again declining an offer from Harvard — as an assistant professor.

In The Man Who Invented the Computer , Smiley describes how Atanasoff developed an interest in mechanical calculators and modified an IBM tabulator to suit his own needs. But to meet his wider scientific aspirations — in particular, to solve simultaneous linear equations quickly — he realized that he would have to build a calculator himself. His struggle to design it concluded with an episode of pure cinema. Atanasoff, “unhappy to an extreme degree”, jumped in his car and drove more than 300 kilometres to the shore of the Mississippi River. Sitting in a roadside tavern with a glass of bourbon and soda, the solution fell into place. He began to make notes on a paper napkin.

Crucially, Iowa State had an excellent college of engineering. In 1939, Atanasoff teamed up with recent graduate Clifford Berry to develop the system that became known as the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC). Built on a shoestring budget, the simple 'breadboard' prototype that emerged contained significant innovations. These included the use of vacuum tubes as the computing mechanism and operating memory; binary and logical calculation; serial computation; and the use of capacitors as storage memory. By the summer of 1940, Smiley tells us, a second, more-developed prototype was running and Atanasoff and Berry had written a 35-page manuscript describing it.

Other people were working on similar devices. In the United Kingdom and at Princeton University in New Jersey, Turing was investigating practical outlets for the concepts in his 1936 paper 'On Computable Numbers'. In London, British engineer Tommy Flowers was using vacuum tubes as electronic switches for telephone exchanges in the General Post Office. In Germany, Konrad Zuse was working on a floating-point calculator — albeit based on electromechanical technology — that would have a 64-word storage capacity by 1941. Smiley weaves these stories into the narrative effectively, giving a broad sense of the rich ecology of thought that burgeoned during this crucial period of technological and logical development.

The Second World War changed everything. Atanasoff left Iowa State to work in the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Washington DC. His prototype computer remained unpatented in the basement of the physics department until the machine was broken up in 1948. The exigencies of war meant that substantial resources were made available for key computing projects such as the vast Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) machine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the launch of which Atanasoff attended in 1946. But Atanasoff moved on, and in 1951 went into business for himself. His Ordnance Engineering Corporation was sold for a healthy profit five years later.

Atanasoff was brought back into the picture by the untimely death of Berry in an apparent suicide in 1963. Concerned, Atanasoff travelled to New York to investigate. The family considered that murder was a possibility — Berry's father had been shot decades earlier by a disgruntled ex-employee — but it was never proven.

In 1973, Atanasoff again found himself in the spotlight after his work was cited in the conclusions of a patent dispute between computing-industry giants Honeywell and Sperry Rand about the early development of the digital computer. Smiley quotes Judge Earl Larson's acknowledgement that “between 1937 and 1942, Atanasoff ... developed and built an automatic electronic digital computer for solving large systems of simultaneous linear algebraic equations”.

Judge Larson further noted that John Mauchly, one of the ENIAC developers who had visited Atanasoff in Iowa, had inspected the Atanasoff–Berry Computer and had read the manuscript describing it. Mauchly derived from this, the judge said, “'the invention of the automatic electronic digital computer' claimed in the ENIAC patent” — indicating Atanasoff's key contribution, albeit unwitting, to the later project.

Belatedly, and largely through the advocacy of friends and writers, Atanasoff gained recognition. Owing to his father's origins, he received early plaudits in Bulgaria, where in 1970 he was granted the Order of Cyril and Methodius, First Class. In 1990 he was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President George H. W. Bush for his invention of the electronic digital computer and for contributions to the development of a technically trained US workforce. Atanasoff died in 1995.

The Man Who Invented the Computer is a vivid telling of the early story of the computing industry. By focusing on Atanasoff, Smiley blends obscure threads with those that are better known. The result would, without embellishment, make an exceptional feature film.

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John Gilbey teaches in the Department of Computer Science at Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 2AX, UK. [email protected],

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A computer is a programmable device that stores, retrieves, and processes data . The term "computer" was originally given to humans ( human computers ) who performed numerical calculations using mechanical calculators, such as the abacus and slide rule . The term was later given to mechanical devices as they began replacing human computers. Today's computers are electronic devices that accept data ( input ), process that data, produce output , and store ( storage ) the results ( IPOS ).

• Computer overview.
• History of the computer.

How are computers used today?

What components make up a desktop computer, what parts are needed for a computer to work, computer connections.

• Types of computers.

Who makes computers?

• Related information.
• All computer questions and answers.

Computer overview

Below is a picture of a computer with each of the main components. You can see the desktop computer , flat-panel display , speakers , keyboard , and mouse in the picture below. We've also labeled each of the input devices and output devices .

You can find further information about other types of computers and get a breakdown of the components that make up a desktop computer later on this page.

History of the computer

The first digital computer and what most people think of as a computer was called the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). It was built during World War II (1943-1946) and was designed to help automate the calculations being done by human computers. By doing these calculations on a computer, they could achieve results much faster and with fewer errors.

Early computers like the ENIAC used vacuum tubes and were large (sometimes room size) and only found in businesses, universities, or governments. Later, computers began utilizing transistors and smaller and cheaper parts that allowed the ordinary person to own a computer.

• When was the first computer invented?

Today, computers do jobs that used to be complicated much simpler. For example, you can write a letter in a word processor , edit it anytime, spell check , print copies, and send it to someone across the world in seconds. All these activities would have taken someone days, if not months, to do before. Also, these examples are a small fraction of what computers can do.

• How are computers used?
• How does a computer work?
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Today's desktop computers have some or all the components ( hardware ) and peripherals below. As technology advances, older technologies, such as a floppy disk drive and Zip drive (shown below), are no longer required or included.

• Case or Chassis
• Optical drive: Blu-ray , CD-ROM , CD-R , CD-RW , or DVD .
• CPU (central processing unit)
• Floppy disk drive
• RAM (random-access memory)
• Monitor , LCD (liquid-crystal display), or another display device.
• Motherboard
• Network card
• Power Supply

A computer does not require all the components mentioned above. However, a computer cannot function without having at the very minimum the parts listed below.

• Processor - Component that executes instructions from the software and hardware .
• Memory - Temporary primary storage for data traveling between the storage and CPU.
• Motherboard (with onboard video) - Component that connects all components.
• Storage device (e.g., hard drive ) - Slower secondary storage that permanently stores data.

However, if you had a computer with only the minimum parts above, you would be unable to communicate with it until you connected at least one input device (e.g., keyboard ). Also, you would need at least one output device (e.g., monitor ) for you to see what is happening.

Once a computer is set up, running, and connected to a network, you could disconnect the keyboard and monitor and remotely connect . Most servers and computers in data centers are used and controlled remotely.

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• How does the computer relate to the human body?

All computers have different types of connections. An example of the back of a personal computer and brief descriptions of each connection is found on our computer connections page.

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Types of computers

Computers can be classified as one of three types of computers: a general-purpose computer , special-purpose computer , or specialized computer .

A general-purpose computer is what most people think of when thinking about a computer and is what this page covers.

A special-purpose computer is embedded in almost all electronic devices and is the most widely-used computer. This computer is designed for a specific task and is found in ATMs , cars, microwaves, TVs , the VCR (video cassette recorder), and other home electronics. See our special-purpose computer page for further information and examples.

A specialized computer is like a general-purpose computer but is designed only to perform one or a few different tasks. See our specialized computer for further information and examples of these computers.

When discussing a computer or a "PC," you're usually referring to a desktop computer found in a home or office. However, the lines of what makes these computers are blurring. Below are different examples of what's considered a computer today.

The picture above shows several types of computers and computing devices and is an example of their differences. Below is a complete list of general-purpose computers of past and present.

Some computers could use many different classifications. For example, a desktop computer could also be classified as a gaming computer and a personal computer.

• Custom-built PC
• Desktop computer
• Diskless workstation and Thin client
• Gaming computer
• Hybrid computer
• Laptop, portable, notebook computer
• Microcomputer
• Nanocomputer
• PDA (personal digital assistant)
• Personal computer
• Prebuilt computer
• Quantum computer
• Stick computer
• Supercomputer

Today, there are two types of computers: the PC (IBM compatible) and Apple Mac. Many companies make and build PCs, and if you get all the necessary parts for a computer, you can even build a custom PC. However, with Apple computers, only Apple designs and makes these computers. See our computer companies page for a listing of companies ( OEMs ) that make and build computers.

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• Desktop computer buying tips.
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Related information

• How to use a computer.
• Basic computer troubleshooting.
• How to install computer hardware.
• What makes a computer fast and powerful?
• How to learn more about computers.
• Why should I learn about computers?
• Now that I've got a computer, what can I do?
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Definition of biography

Did you know.

So You've Been Asked to Submit a Biography

In a library, the word biography refers both to a kind of book and to a section where books of that kind are found. Each biography tells the story of a real person's life. A biography may be about someone who lived long ago, recently, or even someone who is still living, though in the last case it must necessarily be incomplete. The term autobiography refers to a biography written by the person it's about. Autobiographies are of course also necessarily incomplete.

Sometimes biographies are significantly shorter than a book—something anyone who's been asked to submit a biography for, say, a conference or a community newsletter will be glad to know. Often the word in these contexts is shortened to bio , a term that can be both a synonym of biography and a term for what is actually a biographical sketch: a brief description of a person's life. These kinds of biographies—bios—vary, but many times they are only a few sentences long. Looking at bios that have been used in the same context can be a useful guide in determining what to put in your own.

Examples of biography in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'biography.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Late Greek biographia , from Greek bi- + -graphia -graphy

1665, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Dictionary Entries Near biography

biographize

Cite this Entry

“Biography.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biography. Accessed 12 May. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of biography, more from merriam-webster on biography.

Nglish: Translation of biography for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of biography for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about biography

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Biography: A Very Short Introduction

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Biography: A Very Short Introduction looks at the origins and development of biographical writing. Why do certain people and historical events arouse so much interest? How can biographies be compared with history and works of fiction? Does a biography need to be true? Is it acceptable to omit or conceal things? Does the biographer need to personally know the subject? Must a biographer be subjective? This VSI considers the cultural and historical background of different types of biographies, looking at the factors that affect biographers and whether there are different strategies, ethics, and principles required for writing about one person compared to another.

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