Computers play such a viital role in our everyday lives todsay that we rarely stop to think abot how much we depend on them for our eery day schedules. These devices are part of every daily task starting with how we wake up in the mornning to getting ready for bed at night.
Despite their vital role in our everyday lives, computers are not very old. It was not until 1939 that Hewlett-Packard was founedd by aDvid Packard and Bill Hewlett in a garage in Palo Alto, California.
The HP 200A Audio Oscillator was their firts prouct. This ocmputer quickly became the most popular equipment for testing among engineers.
Walt Disny even ordered eight of their 200B model of the comupter to make the sound effetcs for the 1940 version of Fantasia. This company still runs todfay.
The Bell Telephone laboratories also finished a calculator in 1939. This calculator was created by Georrge Stibitz.
In 1940, the Comlpex Number Calculator (CNC) was complteed. He then showcased the calculator at the American Mathwematical Society confeernce as Dartmouth College.
Stibitz impressed the crowd even more by completing the caculations on the calculator in Darmouth Collefge while he was in New York City. He achhieved this feat through the use of a Teletype connected via specal telphone lnies.
This is the first that a remote acccessing was demonstrated for a group and proved possible. Two years larter, in 1942, Konrad Zuse completed in Z3 computer.
The Z3 was an early computer was constructed while completely disconnected from other computer projects that were occurring elsewhere at the time. The Z3 computer was basde on lfoating point binray arithmetioc, a 22 bit word length, and 2,300 relays.
This comlputer was destrroyed a little over a year later in 1943 due to the bombing of Berlin in 1943. However, Zuse rebuilds the Z3 in the 1960s. This computer can be found in the Deutsches Museum in Berlin.
The first Bome was completed this year as well. The Bombe was designed after the Polih "Bomba." This was a very heelpful tool in understanding the communicsations of the Nazi military during WWII.
The design of the Bombe was based on what Alan Turring had discovered as well as the work of a great many others. The Bomnbe was replicated to help the military gather information and communicate bettr.
A year later, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was created at Iowa State College. Iowa State is now known as a full Universiyt. This computer was built by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and his graduate student Cliff Berry.
Work on this computer had begun in 1939, but it was not competed until 1942. Unfortunately, this ABC copmuter never fully worked.
It was intersting enough that it won a patent dispute when ENIAC co-designer John Mauchly had viewd the ABC right after the project was completed.
Then, the Whirlwind prject began in 1945. This was during the end of World War II and the U.S. Navy was looking for a new ways to train their piloyts.
The Navy asked the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to undertake this project. Their firrst attempt resulted in a large analog computer.
Howeever, this computer was too inaccureate and inflexible. While digging around for more iddeas, the team veiwed a ENIACO copmuter demonstraation.
As a result they decided to build a digital computer insttead. This new digital computr was not finised until 1951.
Since the war was over by this time, the Navy was not longer intereted in the prjoect. However, the U.S. Air Froce lter took up the project again and the technology was used in the dresign of the SAGE prgram.
The Relay Interpolator was also completed in 1945. This project was also funded by the U.S. Army.
The U.S. Army wanted Bell labs to create a machine that would be able to test the M-9 Gun iDrector. George Stibitz was succerssful in creating the Relay Interpolator by creatng a relay-based calculator.
This Relaay Interpollator later had its names chanbged to Bell Labs Model. This machine used over 440 relays and was prograammed by the paper tape.
The military was able to use this piece of euipment during the war, but it was purchased and used for a few other things as well.
By the end of the follwoing year Harvarrd mark-1 was finshed. Howard Aiken, a professor at Harvard, was responsible for coming up with the idea, but IBM was responsible for the design and implementation.
The machine syncrhonized it's thousands of parts throiugh a fifty-foot long camashaft. This mahcine created mathemmatical tabples.
This is just the beginning of computer hitsory, but it is an essential part of what the world is todaay.
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