For many years people had sought ways to automate the four core operations that support all mathematical processes: addition, subtractions, multiplication and division.
1000-200BC; the abacus was developed in the Orient
1600AD; John Napier- a Scottish mathematician, invented logarithms and a device called Napier’s Bones.
1621AD: William Oughtred- an English mathematician used Napier’s logarithm to invent the first slide rule.
A mechanical calculator could on its own execute algorithms once the appropriate information is entered.
1623: Wilhelm Schickard developed Schickard’s calculator which used a series of interlocking gears each with 10 spokes representing a digit
1642: Blaise Pascal developed the pascaline an automatic digit machine.
1860: Thomas De Clomar invented the Arithnometer which was the first commercially successful calculating machine and could be used for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
1890: electricity was used for the first time in a data processing project (punched cards)
1890: Herman Hollerith, using many of Babbage’s concepts including punch cards, built the Hollerith Tabulating Machine.
1924: Hollerith’s company that produced his tabulating machine became international business machine (IBM).
