Abacus(주판) was the earliest computing device, around 2500bc.
Astrolabe enabled ships to calculate their latitude(horizontal line) at sea.
- Sliderule
- Clocks
"At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance(수완) of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged(요약, 축소, 제한)." - Charles Babbage
Computer was a job title, until a machine called Step Reckoner came out - late 1800s, built by German polymath(박식한 사람) Gottfried Leibniz.
Step Reckoner could do addition, substraction, mutiplication, division.
** reckon - think, calculate.
Range tables, a pre-calculated number list, were used in military for calculations on firing cannons.
It was good for fast calculations, but had to be rewritten for every new cannons.
Charles Babbage proposes difference engine, which could approximate polynomials(다항식).
He also imagined analytical engine, which can be used for general purposes.
- Never constructed, but the idea of "automatic computer" foreshadows(예시하다) computer programs.
Charles Babbage - "father of computing".
US needed computer for its census(인구조사).
Turned to Herman Hollerith - built tabulating machine.
- Used punch cards to represent data.
- If you are married, you would punch out the married spot, the card is inserted into the machine, metal pins come down over the card. If the hole is punched out, pin passes through the hole and into a little vial(유리병) of mercury, which compeleted a circuit.
Business began recognizing the value of computing, in data-intensive sectors such as accounting, insurance appraisals(보험 감정/평가), inventory management(재고 관리).
To meet this demand, Hollerith founded The Tabulating Machine Company, which later merged with other machine makers in 1924 to become The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
Thoughts
- 컴퓨터의 역사는 기계로 만든 계산기로부터 시작되었다는게 참 흥미롭다.
- Step Reckoner 의 작동원리가 궁금해서 유튜브에서 찾아봤는데... 전기 없이 오직 기계로만 작동하는 계산기였다. 도대체 어떻게 저런걸 발명했을까... 어쨌든 인류의 지혜와 연구가 축적되고 축적되어 기술이 발전하는 것 같다.
- 벨로그에서 이미지+설명 넣는거 좀 빡세다. 이미지와 이미지 설명을 가운데 정렬하려다 설명 텍스트가 가운데 정렬이 안되어 포기했다. 지금으로썬 이 포맷이 제일 최선인 것 같다.
