History of Computing before 1942.

After a suggestion about adding a history of computing because of its' relation to Amateur Radio (calculations and computer control etc.), I thought long and hard about what needed to be included and what could be left out. The more research I did the more I had that I wanted to include, so I decided to start with a list of some of the important occurrences and add short articles for some of the more important or interesting items from the main list. This got too long for a single list, so here is the first part. Up To 1941. Clicking on the links will take you to a page about that particular item, person etc.

If anyone wants to add something to the list or write a short article about an item already listed feel free to send it in, all contributions gratefully received.

35,000 B.C. Tally sticks.

2400 B.C. The Abacus.

300 B.C. Indian mathematician, scholar amd musician Pingala first described the binary number system which is now used in the design of essentially all modern computing equipment.

150 - 100 B.C.

The Antikythera Mechanism: A clockwork, analog computer designed and built in Rhodes. The mechanism contained a differential gear and was capable of tracking the relative positions of all then-known heavenly bodies. It is considered to be the first analog computer.

820 A.D. Persian mathematician, Mohammad ebne Musa Khwarazmi (differing spellings dependant on translater), described the rudiments of modern algebra whose name is derived from his book:
"al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala"
(Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing).
The word algorithm is derived from the name of one of the basic operations with equations described in this book. The book was later translated into Latin as "Liber algebrae et almucabala".

1623 Wilhelm Schickard invents a calculating machine, called the "Speeding Clock" or "Calculating Clock". Schickard calculator

1625-35 William Oughtred invents the slide rule.

1642 Pascaline or Pascals' calculator Blaise Pascal builds a mechanical adding machine.

1668 Sir Samuel Morland produces a non decimal adding machine, suitable for use with English money (pre-decimalisation, Pounds, Shillings and Pence).

1671 Gottfried Leibniz designs a machine to carry out multiplication.

1786 J. H. Mueller conceives the idea of what came to be called a "Difference Engine".

1801 Joseph-Maire Jacquard develops an automatic loom controlled by punched cards.

1820 Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar makes his "Arithmometer", the first mass-produced calculator.

1822 Charles Babbage designs his first mechanical computer, the first prototype for the difference engine.

1834 Babbage conceives, and begins to design, his "Analytical Engine". The program was stored on read-only memory, specifically in the form of punched cards inspired by Jacquarads' loom (1801) .

1848 George Boole devises binary algebra (Boolean algebra) paving the way for the development of a binary computer.

1878 Ramon Verea invents a calculator with an internal multiplication table.

1886 Dorr E. Felt makes his "Comptometer".

1889 Dorr E. Felt invents the first printing desk calculator.

1890 Punched card tabulator, with a picture of its' inventor in the background

Herman Hollerith designed a tabulating machine for the US Census office.

1899 "Everything that can be invented has already been invented.", is alleged to have been said by Charles H. Duell, director of the U.S. Patent Office in this year.
This has been proved to be a myth and untrue!

1906 Henry Babbage, Charles's son, with the help of the firm of R. W. Munro, completes the mill of his fathers' Analytical Engine, just to show that it would have worked.

Electronic Valve (Vacuum Tube) developed by Lee De Forest. Before this it would have been impossible to make digital electronic computers.

1918 Picture of a 3 rotor enigma machine
Arthur Scherbius (pictured left), a German electrical engineer, invents the Enigma Machine. This, in itself, does not further computing greatly. Cracking the German WWII communications codes later, however, brought on great technological advancements.

(Thanks to Wayne, GW1UDK for this entry)

1919 William Henry Eccles and Frank Wilfred Jordan publish the first flip-flop circuit design. It was initially called the Eccles–Jordan trigger circuit.

1924 International Business Machines (IBM corporation) formed after more mergers involving the Computing - Tabulating - Recording Company.

1931/1932 E. Wynn-Williams constructs a binary digital counter for use in connection with physics experiments.

1933 Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Rózycki crack the Enigme Machine.
(Thanks to Wayne, GW1UDK for this entry)

1935 The IBM 601 punch card machine International Business Machines introduces the "IBM 601", a punch card machine with an arithmetic unit based on relays and capable of doing 1 multiplication a second. About 1500 of them are eventually made.

1937 Alan Mathison Turing publishes a paper on "computable numbers". This paper solves a mathematical problem, but the solution is achieved by reasoning about the theoretical simplified computer known today as a Turing Machine.

George Stibitz of the Bell Telephone Laboratories constructs a demonstration 1-bit binary adder using relays. This is one of the first binary computers, although it was only a demonstration machine.

1938 Claude Elwood Shannon publishes a paper on the implementation of symbolic logic using relays.

Konrad Zuse of Berlin, assisted by Helmut Schreyer, completes a prototype mechanical binary programmable calculator, the first binary calculator.

1939 Hewlett-Packard formed by William Redington Hewlett and David Packard (link to Famous Amateurs entry) in a garage in California. A coin toss decided the name.

John Vincent Atanasoff completes a prototype 16-bit adder. This is the first machine to calculate using valves (vacuum tubes).

Konrad Zuse and Helmut Schreyer begin work on a new arithmetic unit using relay logic. The project is interrupted for a year when Zuse is drafted, but then released.

Start of WWII. This spurred many improvements in technology.

1939/1940 Helmut Schreyer completes a prototype 10-bit adder using valves (vacuum tubes), and a prototype memory using neon lamps.

1940 Alan Mathison Turing designs British Bombe to crack Enigma
(Thanks to Wayne, GW1UDK for this entry)

At Bell Labs Samuel Williams and George Stibitz complete a calculator which can operate on complex numbers, and give it the imaginative name of the "Complex Number Calculator"; it is later known as the "Model I Relay Calculator".

1941 Prof John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry complete a special-purpose calculator for solving systems of simultaneous linear equations, later called the "ABC" (Atanasoff-Berry Computer). It was never fully functional but it did win a patent dispute relating to the invention of the computer when Atanasoff proved that ENIAC co-designer John Mauchly had come to see the ABC shortly after it was completed.

Highfields Amateur Radio Club
General Information.

If no menu use the Sitemap Here.

Search the website:

History of Computing Part 1:
Up to 1942.

35,000 B.C.	Tally sticks.
2400 B.C.	The Abacus.
300 B.C.	Indian mathematician, scholar amd musician Pingala first described the binary number system which is now used in the design of essentially all modern computing equipment.
150 - 100 B.C.	The Antikythera Mechanism: A clockwork, analog computer designed and built in Rhodes. The mechanism contained a differential gear and was capable of tracking the relative positions of all then-known heavenly bodies. It is considered to be the first analog computer.
820 A.D.	Persian mathematician, Mohammad ebne Musa Khwarazmi (differing spellings dependant on translater), described the rudiments of modern algebra whose name is derived from his book: "al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala" (Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing). The word algorithm is derived from the name of one of the basic operations with equations described in this book. The book was later translated into Latin as "Liber algebrae et almucabala".
1623	Wilhelm Schickard invents a calculating machine, called the "Speeding Clock" or "Calculating Clock".
1625-35	William Oughtred invents the slide rule.
1642	Blaise Pascal builds a mechanical adding machine.
1668	Sir Samuel Morland produces a non decimal adding machine, suitable for use with English money (pre-decimalisation, Pounds, Shillings and Pence).
1671	Gottfried Leibniz designs a machine to carry out multiplication.
1786	J. H. Mueller conceives the idea of what came to be called a "Difference Engine".
1801	Joseph-Maire Jacquard develops an automatic loom controlled by punched cards.
1820	Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar makes his "Arithmometer", the first mass-produced calculator.
1822	Charles Babbage designs his first mechanical computer, the first prototype for the difference engine.
1834	Babbage conceives, and begins to design, his "Analytical Engine". The program was stored on read-only memory, specifically in the form of punched cards inspired by Jacquarads' loom (1801) .
1848	George Boole devises binary algebra (Boolean algebra) paving the way for the development of a binary computer.
1878	Ramon Verea invents a calculator with an internal multiplication table.
1886	Dorr E. Felt makes his "Comptometer".
1889	Dorr E. Felt invents the first printing desk calculator.
1890	Herman Hollerith designed a tabulating machine for the US Census office.
1899	"Everything that can be invented has already been invented.", is alleged to have been said by Charles H. Duell, director of the U.S. Patent Office in this year. This has been proved to be a myth and untrue!
1906	Henry Babbage, Charles's son, with the help of the firm of R. W. Munro, completes the mill of his fathers' Analytical Engine, just to show that it would have worked. Electronic Valve (Vacuum Tube) developed by Lee De Forest. Before this it would have been impossible to make digital electronic computers.
1918	Arthur Scherbius (pictured left), a German electrical engineer, invents the Enigma Machine. This, in itself, does not further computing greatly. Cracking the German WWII communications codes later, however, brought on great technological advancements. (Thanks to Wayne, GW1UDK for this entry)
1919	William Henry Eccles and Frank Wilfred Jordan publish the first flip-flop circuit design. It was initially called the Eccles–Jordan trigger circuit.
1924	International Business Machines (IBM corporation) formed after more mergers involving the Computing - Tabulating - Recording Company.
1931/1932	E. Wynn-Williams constructs a binary digital counter for use in connection with physics experiments.
1933	Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Rózycki crack the Enigme Machine. (Thanks to Wayne, GW1UDK for this entry)
1935	International Business Machines introduces the "IBM 601", a punch card machine with an arithmetic unit based on relays and capable of doing 1 multiplication a second. About 1500 of them are eventually made.
1937	Alan Mathison Turing publishes a paper on "computable numbers". This paper solves a mathematical problem, but the solution is achieved by reasoning about the theoretical simplified computer known today as a Turing Machine. George Stibitz of the Bell Telephone Laboratories constructs a demonstration 1-bit binary adder using relays. This is one of the first binary computers, although it was only a demonstration machine.
1938	Claude Elwood Shannon publishes a paper on the implementation of symbolic logic using relays. Konrad Zuse of Berlin, assisted by Helmut Schreyer, completes a prototype mechanical binary programmable calculator, the first binary calculator.
1939	Hewlett-Packard formed by William Redington Hewlett and David Packard (link to Famous Amateurs entry) in a garage in California. A coin toss decided the name. John Vincent Atanasoff completes a prototype 16-bit adder. This is the first machine to calculate using valves (vacuum tubes). Konrad Zuse and Helmut Schreyer begin work on a new arithmetic unit using relay logic. The project is interrupted for a year when Zuse is drafted, but then released. Start of WWII. This spurred many improvements in technology.
1939/1940	Helmut Schreyer completes a prototype 10-bit adder using valves (vacuum tubes), and a prototype memory using neon lamps.
1940	Alan Mathison Turing designs British Bombe to crack Enigma (Thanks to Wayne, GW1UDK for this entry) At Bell Labs Samuel Williams and George Stibitz complete a calculator which can operate on complex numbers, and give it the imaginative name of the "Complex Number Calculator"; it is later known as the "Model I Relay Calculator".
1941	Prof John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry complete a special-purpose calculator for solving systems of simultaneous linear equations, later called the "ABC" (Atanasoff-Berry Computer). It was never fully functional but it did win a patent dispute relating to the invention of the computer when Atanasoff proved that ENIAC co-designer John Mauchly had come to see the ABC shortly after it was completed.

History of Computing Part 1: Up to 1942.

History of Computing Part 1:
Up to 1942.