Comparing Apples and Oranges: Computer History

Comparing Apples and Oranges...

As according to TechTerms, 'a computer is a programmable machine. This means it can execute a programmed list of instructions and

respond to new instructions that it is given. Today, however, the term is most often used to refer to the desktop and laptop computers that most people use.'

This revolutionary technology has evolved

so much in such a short time period. In order to appreciate the progress of the computer, we must first rewind time, all the way back to the 19th Century, when he invented the first digital computer. From this point here, the sky was the limit for nerds

and tech geeks everywhere...

1642 - At 19 French inventor Beliase Pascal invented the first mechanical calculator. The calculator was able to add and subtract.

1674 - Gottfried Leibniz of Germany designs a machine able multiply and divide.

1834 - Charles Babbage invented a mechanical computer, called a "difference engine". The difference engine could calculate and print the calculations. However this machine or the later "analytical engine" were not built in his lifetime. The construction of the difference engine was in London in the 1900s.

1835 - Samuel Morse invented the Morse Code

1837 - William Cook and Charles Wheatstone invented the telegraph

1855 - G. Schnetz creates a calculating engine which was displayed in a Paris Exhibition

1876 - Alexander Bell invents the first telephone

1889 - Herman Hollerith invented a tabulating machine.

1896 - Herman Holleritih funds a company (Tabulating Machine Company) which later becomes IBM

1911 - TMC is changed to IBM (International Business Machines)

1926 - The first television is invented by John Logie Baird

1937 - Alan Turing develops the theoretical computing machine concept

1949-50 - Printed electronic circuits are invented

1950 - Big computers

1953 - IBM starts building big computers

1954 - Fortran programming language

1960 - first email programme called mailbox

1964 - IBM first word processor

1965 - first minicomputer

1971 - Microprocessor

1972 - pocket calculator, email between two machines

1975 - portable computer

1984 - Apple Macintosh introduces the mouse and window interface, CD-ROM and cyberspace

1986 - the internet takes shape

early 1900's - Wired networks number over 7,500 worldwide, reaching people in more than 75 countries

1995 - There are 30 to 40 million Internet users in the world (estimated).

Source: Internet Timeline