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KF5JRV > TECH 31.07.16 15:06l 120 Lines 6420 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Calculating Devices History
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Sent: 160731/1253Z 6926@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK1.4.65
A brief history of calculating devices
Calculation is an integral part of how societies function and has been used
since ancient times to regulate trade and fix dimensions of land and
buildings. Theoretical developments in mathematics, along with the growing
complexity of calculations, inspired the design of calculating machines during
the Early Modern period. These analogue devices, along with technologies
developed for factory automation and advances in electronics engineering, gave
rise to the first digital computers.
"It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor
of calculation, which could safely be relegated to anyone else if machines
were used." Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, 1671.
Early numeracy
Employed by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Mesopotamians, the earliest
calculating devices were systems of writing that used shorthand to denote
specific and often large quantities. These written forms differed between
cultures but usually involved groups of lines representing single units, with
modified characters for intervals of five or ten.
Counting sticks, knots, and tally sticks - with values denoted by specific
notches - were common forms of counting and numerical record-keeping
throughout the world. These systems, along with the use of Roman numerals,
persisted through the Renaissance, as many were hesitant to adopt the
Hindu-Arabic numerals used today out of concern for accuracy and the potential
for forgery.
The abacus is perhaps the most well known pre-modern calculating device, and
is often associated with the wire-and-bead devices that originated in the
Middle East. While its true origins remain debatable, the word abacus would
have referred to an ancient practice of moving pebbles ('calculi') along lines
written in sand.
A common abacus today is the Japanese 'soroban', which has one 'heavenly' bead
per wire representing 5, and four 'earthly' beads representing 1 each. This is
a simplification of the Chinese 'Suanpan', in which more beads per wire can
accommodate other decimal systems such as duodecimal (i.e. base 12, rather
than base 10).
Pure mathematics has its own history alongside that of counting. The origins
of geometry, for example, stretch back to Ancient Greece, and
Euclid's Elements, first compiled around 300 BCE, would become, in various
forms, the standard mathematical textbook for nearly two millennia.
Slides, cranks, and dials
Most importantly, after 1400 CE new tools and techniques were developed for
commerce, exploration, and natural philosophy G , often serving multiple
purposes. From the 17th century, the slide rule, for instance, became the most
commonly used calculating device for nearly three hundred years. Beginning as
a 'line of numbers' arranged on wood, paper, or brass, rulers attached to one
another were used to align points along different scales to perform arithmetic
and convert units.
The Early Modern period was also the dawn of the age of clockwork and
automation, which inspired the design of calculating machines. Such devices
came together gradually, and were easier to design than to build.
Scottish mathematician John Napier, who discovered the method of
logarithms, first devised a set of rods for use in multiplication around
1614. A version of the rods in a box (Image 1) provided the template for a
gear-based 'carry' mechanism to store values, enabling the first mechanical
calculating devices. Blaise Pascal completed a number of such machines by
the mid-17th century, and was followed by Samuel Morland and Gottfried
Wilhelm von Leibniz.
The reduction of arithmetic to repeated mechanical manoeuvres influenced
Johann Helfrich von Müller to conceive of a 'difference engine' that could
handle more complex calculations. Müller's design, published in 1786, was
intended to calculate tables of logarithms, replacing human 'computers' (that
is, people employed to manually compute such tables) with an error-free machine.
Forty years later, the English polymath Charles Babbage designed and
attempted to construct a similar machine, capable of not only calculating but
also printing tables. Babbage was not able to complete his machine in his
lifetime, but a fragment re-constructed by his son Henry in the 1870s
proved that the concept could work.
Into the digital
The designs of Leibniz, Müller, and Babbage, which automated calculation with
gears using 'registers' to store information as it was mechanically read, laid
the foundation for the digital computers we have today.
Modern computers were first developed to solve mathematical problems. In the
1930s, German engineer Konrad Zuse built his third automatic mechanical
calculator, the Z3, which carried out instructions read in by a program.
During World War II in the United States, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert
built the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the fastest
machine to date, to calculate firing tables for the military. At Bletchley
Park, British codebreakers and engineers produced the world's first
programmable electronic digital computer, Colosus, to aid in the cracking of
German ciphers.
The first electronic computers with stored programs were also developed in the
UK: the 'Baby' computer at Manchester and the Electronic Delay Storage
Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) at Cambridge, which was used by many in the
scientific community during the 1950s. Early computers were massive and
expensive, so their applications had to be well defined and justified, with
entire departments within universities and businesses devoted to them.
It may come as a surprise today, but when pocket electronic calculators were
first introduced, manufacturers had to justify their expense to individual
consumers by convincing him or her that they were in fact faster and more
accurate than the ubiquitous slide rule.
Popular devices, such as the Texas Instruments Datamath series, cost $150 upon
their introduction, which was expensive for a device that only performed
simple arithmetic. As they caught on, however, pocket calculators drove
advances in microprocessor technology, making computer chips faster and less
expensive. Just as importantly, pocket calculators helped show people how
computers could fit easily into their daily routines.
73, Scott kf5jrv
KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
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