4500 years of Computing, the long history of Computing Devices
1. 2300-2700BC – The ‘Abacus’
Originally used by merchants to calculate quantities and weights.
2. 100-150BC – The ‘Antikythera Mechanism’
Discovered in 1901 on an Ancient Greek shipwreck. Designed to calculate astronomical positions and eclipses
3. 17th Century – The ‘Slide Rule’
The precurser to the pocket calculator. Most commonly used calculation tool until the 1970s.
4. 1822 – The Charles Babbage ‘Difference Engine’
Hand cranked, mechanical, digital computers for the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables. The first computer designed to have its own ‘printer’.
5. 1940s – ‘Colossus’
‘The world’s first electronic digital computer. Developed for British code breakers during World War II.
6. 1960s – The Microprocessor
7. 1970s & 80s – The Personal Computers (IBM PC / Apple Mac
8. 1990s – The Internet
