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{{history of computing}}
==Pre-computing==
==[[Prehistory]]–[[Ancient history|antiquity]]==▼
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| c. 910 BC
| The [[south-pointing chariot]] was invented in [[History of China#Ancient China|ancient China]]. It was the first known geared mechanism to use a [[differential gear]]. The chariot was a two-wheeled vehicle, upon which is a pointing figure connected to the wheels by means of differential gearing. Through careful selection of wheel size, track and gear ratios, the figure atop the chariot always pointed in the same direction.
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==The analog computer==
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! Date
! class="unsortable" | Event
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| c. 125 BC
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<!--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Post-classical history|Medieval]]–1640--->
===[[Post-classical history|Medieval]]–1640===
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|- valign="top"
| 725
| Chinese inventor [[Liang Lingzan]] built the world's first fully mechanical clock; [[water clocks]], some of them extremely accurate, had been known for centuries previous to this. This was an important technological leap forward; the earliest true computers, made a thousand years later, used technology based on that of clocks.
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| 850
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| German [[polymath]] [[Wilhelm Schickard]] drew a device that he called a ''calculating clock'' on two letters that he sent to [[Johannes Kepler]]; one in 1623 and the other in 1624. A fire later destroyed the machine as it was being built in 1624 and he decided to abandon his project.<ref>[[#MARG|Jean Marguin]], p. 47 (1994)</ref> This machine became known to the world only in 1957 when the two letters were discovered. Some replicas were built in 1961.<ref>[[#MARG|Jean Marguin]], p. 48 (1994)</ref> This machine had no impact on the development of mechanical calculators.<ref>[[#T198|René Taton]], p. 81 (1969)</ref>
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<!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1641–1820--->
===
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| [[J. H. Müller]], an engineer in the Hessian army, first conceived of the idea of a [[difference engine]] (first written reference to the basic principles of a difference machine is dated to 1784).
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| 1801 <ref>
*{{cite web|url=https://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/punched-cards-control-jacquard-loom/|website=computerhistory.org|title=The Jacquard Loom: A Driver of the Industrial Revolution|date=|publisher=[[ Computer History Museum]]|access-date=|url-status=|archive-url=|archive-date=|quote=In Lyon, France, Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) demonstrated in 1801 a loom that enabled unskilled workers to weave complex patterns in silk.}}
*{{cite web|author=Michael N Geselowitz|url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-jacquard-loom-a-driver-of-the-industrial-revolution|website=ieee.org|title=1801: Punched cards control Jacquard loom|date=1 Jan 2019|publisher=[[IEEE]]|access-date=|url-status=|archive-url=|archive-date=|quote=At an industrial exhibition in Paris in 1801, Jacquard demonstrated }}
*{{cite web|url=https://passerelles.essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/chronologie/article/06fe304e-561f-4b9d-bf32-24339fae5877-metier-tisser-jacquard|website=bnf.fr|title=Métier à tisser de Jacquard|date=|publisher=[[Bibliothèque nationale de France|BnF]]|access-date=|url-status=|archive-url=|archive-date=|quote=En 1801, cet ingénieur de Lyon équipe le métier à tisser d’un mécanisme en fonte qui sélectionne les fils de chaîne grâce à un programme inscrit sur une carte perforée.}}
*{{cite book|year=1888|chapter=BROCADE|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vjxKAAAAYAAJ&dq=Jacquard+attachment+1801&pg=PA746|___location=|editor1-link= Thomas Spencer Baynes |title=Supplement to Encyclopedia Britannica. (<small><small>NINTH EDITION.</small></small>) <small><small>A DICTIONARY OF ARTS SCIENCES AND GENERAL LITERATURE</small></small> |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vjxKAAAAYAAJ|volume=1|edition=9|publication-place=|publisher=[[H.G. Allen]]|publication-date= 1833 |access-date=|via=[[Google Books]]|quote=Until the invention of the Jacquard attachment to the loom in the year 1801, embroidered silk goods were called brocades.}}</ref>
| [[France]]
|| [[Joseph-Marie Jacquard]] developed the [[Jacquard loom]], an automatic loom controlled by [[punched card]]s.
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| [[France]]
|| [[Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar]] invented the '[[Arithmometer]]' which after thirty more years of development became, in 1851, the first mass-produced mechanical calculator. An operator could perform [[Multiplication algorithm|long multiplications]] and divisions quickly and effectively by using a movable accumulator for the result. This machine was based on the earlier works of Pascal and Leibniz.
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<!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1822-1851--->
==Invention of the mechanical computer==
===1822-1851===
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| 1822
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| 1842
| [[United Kingdom]]
|| Construction of Babbage's [[difference engine]] was cancelled as an official project.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UmNJAAAAYAAJ&q=difference+engine+1842&pg=PA387|title=A History of the Royal Society: With Memoirs of the Presidents|last=Weld|first=Charles Richard|date=1848|publisher=J. W. Parker|pages=387–390|language=en}}</ref> The cost overruns had been considerable (£17,470 was spent, which, in
|- valign="top"
| 1843
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|| British Mathematician [[George Boole]] developed binary algebra ([[Boolean algebra (logic)|Boolean algebra]])<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=paINAXYHN8kC&q=Boolean+algebra+1847&pg=PA7|title=Modern Algebra with Applications|last1=Gilbert|first1=William J.|last2=Nicholson|first2=W. Keith|date=2004-01-30|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9780471469896|pages=7|language=en}}</ref> which has been widely used in binary computer design and operation, beginning about a century later. See 1939.
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<!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1851–1930--->
===1851–1930===
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|| Welsh physicist [[C. E. Wynn-Williams]]<!--- (1903–1979) --->, at [[Cambridge, England]], used a ring of [[thyratron]] tubes to construct a binary digital counter that counted emitted [[alpha particle]]s.<ref>{{Citation | last1 = Rutherford | first1 = Ernest | author-link = Ernest Rutherford | last2 = Wynn-Williams | first2 = C. E. | author2-link = C. E. Wynn-Williams | last3 = Lewis | first3 = W. B. | author3-link = Bennett Lewis | title = Analysis of the α-Particles Emitted from Thorium C and Actinium C | journal =[[Proceedings of the Royal Society A]] | volume = 133 | issue = 822 | pages = 351–366 |date=October 1931 | doi = 10.1098/rspa.1931.0155 |bibcode = 1931RSPSA.133..351R| doi-access = free }}</ref>
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<!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1931–1940--->
===1931–1940===
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In 1940 Zuse presented the Z2 to an audience of the {{lang|de|Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt}} ("German Laboratory for Aviation") in Berlin-Adlershof.
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<!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1941–1949--->
==Invention of the programmable computer==
===1941–1949===
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*[[History of computing hardware]]
==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{cite book|ref=MARG|language=fr|title=Histoire des instruments et machines à calculer, trois siècles de mécanique pensante 1642–1942|first=Jean|last=Marguin|year=1994|publisher=Hermann|isbn=978-2-7056-6166-3}}
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