Entry No. 4 (December 1)
We are now tackling about the history of the computers. We talked about the abacus, and whether the Chinese or Persians have invented it.
We also talked about John Napier, his invention of Napier bones and the discovery of logarithms, but the first gear driven calculating machine was built by Prof. Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. It was called the calculating clock.
Inn 1642, Blaise Pascal at the age of 19 invented the Pascaline as a help to his father. Pascal built 50 of these cause it can only add. He was a child prodigy. He invented the probability theory, the hydraulic press and the syringe.
A German Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz built a four function calculator that he called the stepped reckoner because it employeed fluted drums arranged in a stair step function. Leibniz was also the first to advocate the binary system. He died poor and alone.
In 1801, the Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a power loom that could automatically read a pattern from punched wooden cards.
By 1882. the English mathematician Charles Babbage proposed using of steam to drive a large calculating machine which he called the Difference Engine. It would be able to compute tables of numbers, such as logarithm tables. He then created the Analytical Engines. Babbage saw that the pattern of holes could be used to represent an abstract idea. He realized that punched paper could be used as a storage reference, for future use. Because of these, he called the two main parts of his Engine, Store and Mill. In a modern computer, these are called memory unit and central processing unit.
The thing that separates the Analytical engine from others?
A CONDITIONAL STATEMENT.
Which basically means that it allows a program to achieve different results each time it is run.
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