The Evolution Of Computers and Information Technology

Overview of some of the historical developments in information technology from Clay Tablets, the first dawn of the Printing Press up to the presumed singularity future.

Just a tidbit before we begin, it took the telephone 40 years to reach 10 million customers, and fax machines 20 years. Personal Computers, on the other hand, made it to that numbers in as fast as 5 years in every American home. Email took a year to reach 10 million users when first introduced in 1981.

Facts and Figures on entries (following) doesn’t guarantee sharp accuracy to to numbers, events, persons – so bring with you your grain of salt while reading on.

YEAR: 1801

Jacquard Machine

The Jacquard machine (French: [ʒakaʁ]) is a device fitted to a power loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask and matelassé. It was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804, based on earlier inventions by the Frenchmen Basile Bouchon (1725), Jean Baptiste Falcon (1728), and Jacques Vaucanson (1740).[5] The machine was controlled by a "chain of cards"; a number of punched... Discover More »

YEAR: 1801

YEAR: 1820

The Thomas Arithmometer

The Thomas Arithmometer, the First Commercially Produced Mechanical Calculator. Initially Thomas spent all of his time and energy on his insurance business, therefore there is a hiatus of more than thirty years in between the first model of the Arithmometer introduced in 1820 and its true commercialization in 1852. By the time of his death in 1870, his manufacturing facility had built around 1,000 Arithmometers... Discover More »

YEAR: 1820

YEAR: 1829

William Burt's Typographer

With Burt's interest in math and science, he began to invent useful equipment for his trades and travels. In 1829, he invented a small wooden box with a swinging lever that he could depress to make an impression. The lever was attached to a short sector beneath; letters could be imprinted in upper and lower case on a sheet of rolled paper, like that of a paper towel dispenser... Discover More »

YEAR: 1829

YEAR: 1833

The Babbage Engine

Charles Babbage (1791-1871), computer pioneer, designed the first automatic computing engines. He invented computers but failed to build them. The first complete Babbage Engine was completed in London in 2002, 153 years after it was designed. Difference Engine No. 2, built faithfully to the original drawings, consists of 8,000 parts, weighs five tons, and measures 11 feet long. We invite you to learn more about this extraordinary object... Discover More »

YEAR: 1833

Top_Gadget_Info_The-Evolution-of-Computers-First-Computer-Program

YEAR: 1843

First Computer Program by Ada Lovelace

Around the age of 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, a mathematician and inventor. The pair became friends, and the much older Babbage served as a mentor to Ada. Through Babbage, Ada began studying advanced mathematics with University of London professor Augustus de Morgan. Ada was fascinated by Babbage's ideas. Known as the father of the computer, he invented the difference engine, which was meant to perform... Discover More »

YEAR: 1843

YEAR: 1844

Telegraph Message by Samuel Morse

What was the first telegraph message? Sent by inventor Samuel F.B. Morse on May 24, 1844, over an experimental line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, the message said: "What hath God wrought?" Taken from the Bible, Numbers 23:23, and recorded on a paper tape, the phrase had been suggested to Morse by Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of a friend. The success of the experiment would change forever the national communication system... Discover More »

YEAR: 1844

Top_Gadget_Info_The-Evolution-of-Computers-George-Boole

YEAR: 1854

George Boole on Computer Design

One of the first Englishmen to write on logic, Boole pointed out the analogy between algebraic symbols and those that can represent logical forms and syllogisms, showing how the symbols of quantity can be separated from those of operation. With Boole in 1847 and 1854 began the algebra of logic, or what is now called Boolean algebra. Boole’s original and remarkable general symbolic... Discover More »

YEAR: 1854

Top_Gadget_Info_The-Evolution-of-Computers-Alexander-Graham-Bell

YEAR: 1876

Telephone by Alexander Graham Bell

Bell is credited with inventing the telephone; in all, he personally held 18 patents along with 12 he shared with collaborators. On March 10, 1876, after years of work, Bell perfected his most well-known invention, the telephone, and made his first telephone call. Before then, Bell in 1871 started working on a device known as the multiple or harmonic telegraph (a telegraph transmission of several messages set to different frequencies) upon... Discover More »

YEAR: 1876

Tabulating Machine

Herman Hollerith is widely regarded as the father of modern automatic computation. He chose the punched card as the basis for storing and processing information and he built the first punched-card tabulating and sorting machines as well as the first key punch, and he founded the company that was to become IBM. Hollerith's designs dominated the computing landscape for almost 100 years. After receiving his Engineer of Mines... Discover More »

YEAR: 1876

YEAR: 1895

First Radio Signal

Guglielmo Marconi, (born April 25, 1874, Bologna, Italy—died July 20, 1937, Rome), Italian physicist and inventor of a successful wireless telegraph (1896). In 1909 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics, which he shared with German physicist Ferdinand Braun. He later worked on the development of shortwave wireless communication, which constitutes the basis of nearly all modern long... Discover More »

YEAR: 1895

YEAR: 1907

First Regular Radio Broadcast

The radio broadcasting of music and talk intended to reach a dispersed audience started experimentally around 1905–1906, and commercially around 1920 to 1923. VHF (very high frequency) stations started 30 to 35 years later. In the early days, radio stations broadcast on the longwave, mediumwave and shortwave bands, and later on VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra high frequency). However, in the United Kingdom... Discover More »

YEAR: 1907

Top_Gadget_Info_The-Evolution-of-Computers-Robot

YEAR: 1920 – 1921

The word "Robot" was first used

'Robot' was first applied as a term for artificial automata in the 1920 play R.U.R. by the Czech writer, Karel Čapek. However, Josef Čapek was named by his brother Karel as the true inventor of the term robot. The word 'robot' itself was not new, having been in the Slavic language as robota (forced laborer), a term which classified those peasants obligated to compulsory service under the feudal system (see: Robot Patent). Čapek's... Discover More »

YEAR: 1920 – 1921

Top_Gadget_Info_The-Evolution-of-Computers-International-Business-Machine

YEAR: 1924

IBM (International Business Machine)

T.J. Watson renames Hollerith’s machine company, founded in 1896, to International Business Machine (IBM). In 1914 Watson became president of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, a maker of electrical punch-card computing systems and other products; the company changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in 1924. An exceptional salesman... Discover More »

YEAR: 1924

Top_Gadget_Info_The-Evolution-of-Computers-First-Television

YEAR: 1927

First Television by John Logie Baird

Baird based his television on the work of Paul Nipkow, a German scientist who patented his ideas for a complete television system in 1884. Nipkow likewise used a rotating disk with holes in it to scan images, but he never achieved more than the crudest of shadowy pictures. Various inventors worked to develop this idea, and Baird was the first to achieve easily discernible images. In 1928, Baird made the first overseas... Discover More »

YEAR: 1927

YEAR: 1941

First Digital Computer

Konrad Zuse (Germany) produced the first fully functional programmable digital computer, the Z3 (ran by perforated celluloid strips. Zuse worked throughout WWII on other designs, culminating in his Z3 computer, the world's first fully operational stored-program electromechanical computer. He was able to sell one to the German aircraft bureau, which needed it to solve aerodynamic problems. ZI-Z3 were ultimately destroyed in an Allied... Discover More »

YEAR: 1941