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The Industrial Revolution (late 18th to early 19th century) played a pivotal role in advancing computing hardware, setting the stage for modern mechanised and automated computing systems. During this time, industries demanded precise and large-scale calculations for tasks in fields such as navigation, engineering, and finance, leading to innovations in both design and function.
One of the most significant advancements was the creation of '''Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine''' (1822), a mechanical device designed to automate the calculation of polynomial functions. Babbage’s vision of a fully mechanical computer included a system of gears and wheels, powered by steam, capable of solving complex calculations that previously required extensive manual work. Although never fully realised in his lifetime, Babbage's designs led to later developments in computational logic and paved the way for programmable computers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hutton |first=D.M. |date=2002-08-01 |title=The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/k.2002.06731fae.009 |journal=Kybernetes |volume=31 |issue=6 |doi=10.1108/k.2002.06731fae.009 |issn=0368-492X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Campbell-Kelly |first=Martin |date=1988-07 |title=Charles Babbage's Table of Logarithms (1827) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/mahc.1988.10023 |journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=159–169 |doi=10.1109/mahc.1988.10023 |issn=1058-6180}}</ref>
In addition to Babbage, '''Ada Lovelace''' is credited with conceptualising algorithms that could be executed by a machine, making her one of the first to recognise the potential for computers to perform more than arithmetic tasks. Lovelace’s notes on Babbage’s Analytical Engine in the 1840s are often considered the first examples of computer programming.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Toole |first=Betty Alexandra |date=1991-03 |title=Ada, an analyst and a metaphysician |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/122028.122031 |journal=ACM SIGAda Ada Letters |volume=XI |issue=2 |pages=60–71 |doi=10.1145/122028.122031 |issn=1094-3641}}</ref>
The Industrial Revolution also spurred advancements in '''punched card technology''', initially developed by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804 for automated looms.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ceruzzi |first=Paul E |date=2006-01 |title=Jacquard's Web: How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age (review) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2006.0061 |journal=Technology and Culture |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=197–198 |doi=10.1353/tech.2006.0061 |issn=1097-3729}}</ref> This concept of using punched cards to control a machine was later adapted by Herman Hollerith in the 1890s for data processing, particularly during the U.S. Census.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Olley |first=Allan |date=2008-12 |title=David Alan Grier. <i>When Computers Were Human</i>. 424 pp., apps., bibl., index. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005. $19.95 (paper). |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/597732 |journal=Isis |volume=99 |issue=4 |pages=870–871 |doi=10.1086/597732 |issn=0021-1753}}</ref> Hollerith’s machines could sort and tabulate data far faster than manual methods, establishing a direct link between industrial machinery and data processing technologies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cortada |first=James W. |date=2015-12-31 |title=Before the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand and the Industry They Created, 1865-1956 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400872763 |doi=10.1515/9781400872763}}</ref>
By the end of the Industrial Revolution, innovations in '''mechanical computing and automation''' had laid the foundation for 20th-century breakthroughs in electronics and computing hardware. These early mechanical systems demonstrated the potential for machines to carry out complex calculations, leading to more efficient designs in the early 1900s and the first fully electronic computers in the mid-20th century.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=L. |first=K. |date=1990-06-29 |title=Computing Before Computers. William Aspray, Ed. Iowa State University Press, Ames, 1990. x, 266 pp., illus. $27.95 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.248.4963.1670-a |journal=Science |volume=248 |issue=4963 |pages=1670–1670 |doi=10.1126/science.248.4963.1670-a |issn=0036-8075}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=USSELMAN |first=STEVEN W. |date=2004-06 |title=A History of Modern Computing. Second edition. By Paul E. Ceruzzi. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998, 2003. Pp. xi, 445. $22.95, paper |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022050704352915 |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=64 |issue=02 |doi=10.1017/s0022050704352915 |issn=0022-0507}}</ref>
===Renaissance calculating tools===
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