THE FOUR BASIC PERIODS

A. THE PRE-MECHANICAL AGE (3000 B.C.-1450 A.D.) 1. Writing and Alphabets Petroglyths (Simple figures carved in rock) Ex. sketches of geometric signs (dots, squares, ect.) First development of signs corresponding to spoken sounds, instead of pictures to express words. (2800 B.C.-2500 B.C.)

Cuneiform- the first two written language and the first real informative system. Ex. Pictograph of star (heaven or God) Around 2000 B.C.- Phoenicians created symbols that expressed single syllables and consonant. (the first true alphabet)

2. Paper and Pens (input technologies) Sumerians input technology was the stylus that could scratch marks in wet clay Around 2600 B.C., the Egyptians wrote on the papyrus plant Around 100 A.D., the Chinese made paper from rags, on which modern day paper-making is based.

3. Books and Libraries (output technologies) Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest books. Egyptians kept scrolls Around 600 B.C., Greeks began to fold sheets of papyrus vertically into leaves and bind them together.

4. The First Numbering System 1-9 as vertical lines, 10 as U or circle 100 as a coiled rope 100 A.D.-200 A.D. creation of a nine digit numbering system 875 A.D. the concept of zero was developed

5. The First Calculations : The Abacus 500 B.C.- Babylonia popularized in China

B. THE MECHANICAL AGE (1450- 1840) 1. The First Information Explosion Johann Guttenberg (Germany) Invented the movable metal-type printing press in 1450 2. The First General Purpose Computer John Napier (1614) Introduces logarithms, invents logs in 1614 that allows multiplication and division to be reduced to addition and subtraction. Wilhelm Shickard (1623) The fast mechanical calculator that works with six digits and carries digits to access columns.

William Oughtred (1625) Invented the slide rule

Blaise Pascal (1642) Invented the Pascaline, which is made out of clock gears and levers. It could solve mechanical problems like addition and subtraction.

Gottfried Leibniz (1671) Invented the stepped reckoner that could multiply 5 to 12 digit numbers up to 16 digit numbers.

Joseph Marie Jacquard (1801) Developed an automatic loom (Jacquards Loom) controlled by punch card.

Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1820) Invented the Arithmometer that became the first mass-produced calculator.

Charles Babbage (1821) Invented the difference engine and analytical engine. He is the Father of computer.

Ada Augusta Lovelace (1842) The first computer programmer

C.THE ELECTROMECHANICAL AGE (1840-1940)

1. The Beginning of Telecommunication Voltaic Battery The first electric battery, also known as voltaic pile by Allesandro Volta. They provided for the first time, a simple source of stored electrical energy that didnt rely on mechanical means. Telephone and Radio Alexander Grahambell - created the first telephone. George Boole develops the binary Algebra, or Boolean Algebra Guglielmo Marconi discovered that electrical waves travels through space and can produce an effect far from at which they originated. Telegraph Created by Samuel F.B Morse in 1832

2. Electromechanical Computing Tabulating Machine (1853) Created by Pehr and Edvard Scheutz, capable of processing fifteen digit numbers, printing out results, and rounding off to eight digits. Comptometer (1885-1889) Devised by Dorr Felt in 1885, comptometer is a key driven adding and subtracting calculator. In 1889, Felt introduced the Comptograph, a comptomter with a built-in printer. Herman Hollerith (1890) Successfully used punched cards specifically for census-taking. The Millionaire (1893)

Invented by Otto Shweiger, a Swiss engineer, the Millionaire is the first efficient four function calculator. Vacuum Tubes (1906) Developed by Lee De Forest

D. ELECTRONIC AGE (1941- Present) Konrad Zuse (1941) Built the first programmable computer called the Z3. Z3 was the first fully functional program controlled (freely programmable) computer of the world. It was presented on May 12, 1941 in Berlin. Howard Aiken (1942) Built the Mark I the first stored-program computer. John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry (1942) Completed the first all-electronic computer called The ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer). It was the first computer to use electricity in the form of vacuum tubes.