ORIGINS

ORIGINS Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) “A French mathematician, physict and religious philosopher.” A big influence in the mechanical calculators, sudy of fluids and concepts of pressure and vacuum. In his honour, there is a “SI unit of pressure”(W), “a programming language that consists of smaller subprograms, each of which is structured program in itself; it is used on microcomputers and for teaching programming but has relatively few business applications. Wirth wanted to create a language that would teach students structured programming techniques. Pascal programs consist of smaller subprograms, each of which is a structures program in itself.”(2) Nowadays it is “still popular as a student language, but it is seldom used by professional programmers”(1).  Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716) German polymath. Liebniz’s calculator is not only used for adding and subtracting but also for multiplying and dividying. The complicated and unreliable mechanism formed products by adding the multiplicand first to itself and then to the preceding subtotal, as many times as indicated by the value of the multiplier. To multiply 23 to 8, for example, it added 23 to itself and then added 23 to 46, and so on. This is essentially the method used in modern computers, although countless refinements have been made.(3)  ** It was not very reliable. **
 * He invented the first mechanical calculator that performed additions and subtractions. Each digit was entered manually by turning a gear. The result was displayed in the window. It was digital, worked with whole numbers and produced precise results. **

Charles Babbage(1792-1872) “English mathematician, philosopher,inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer .”(W) He was considered as the "Father of the Computer", as he invented the first mechanical computer that eventually, in a future, became more complex and better. He also invented the skeleton key, the locomotive cow catcher, and the speedometer.(4)

 **He designed the analytical engine. He incorporated a mechanical memory to store intermediate results so they didn´t have to be copied to paper and the re-entered. He provided punch cards for entry of numbers and calculation steps. It was too complex to build, the technology needed was not available at that time. The world was not prepared for computers. The analytical machine included the four basic component of moder computers, input, output, processing and storage**. Joseph Jacquard(1752-1834) A French straw hat maker before becoming a silk weaver and inventor. Jacquard's He improved the punched card(original) of Jacques de Vaucanson’s loom of 1745, to invent the Jacquard loom mechanism (1804-1805). This “device was controlled by recorded patterns of holes in a string of cards, and allows what is now known as the Jacquard weaving of intricate patterns.” (W) It “automatically reproduce woven patterns by reading information encoded in stiff paper cards”(4)  Augusta Ada Countess of Lovelace (1816-1852) The legitimate child of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron. Was “known for having written a description of Charles Babbage' s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the "first programmer" since she was writing programs —that is, manipulating symbols according to rules—for a machine that Babbage had not yet built. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities.”(W) She predicted that the Analytical Engine will compose music. Lovelace was Babbage partner, she corrected the errors of his work. **She developed the programming loop, in which a secuence of operations is repeated within a program**.  William Seward Burroughs(1855-1898)  Was an american inventor “Initially a bank clerk, he invented a " calculating machine " designed to ease the monotony of clerical work.”(W)

** He intoduced the first commercially successful mechanical adding machine. Millions were sold in 1926. **

Dr. Herman Hollerith(1860-1929)  German-American  statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards in order to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data.  <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">He built machines under contract for the Census Office, which used them to tabulate the 1890 census in only one year. <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">**He also built a sorting machine to determine the amount of people with certain characteristics (number of children). It was powered electrically, not by muscle or steam. He founded the TABULATING MACHINE COMPANY.**

<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Albertus Medium','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: ES-PE; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Thomas J. Watson(1874-1956) “He was the American president of International Business Machines (IBM). <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">**Former The Tabulating Machine Company.** Developed IBM's effective management style and turned it into one of the most effective selling organizations yet seen, based largely around punched card <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msoansilanguage: ES-PE; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; msobidilanguage: AR-SA;"> tabulating machines <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: ES-PE; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">. Was called the world's greatest salesman when he died.”(W) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Albertus Medium','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">John von Neumann(1903-1957) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Albertus Medium','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">“A Hungarian American <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none;">mathematician <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> who made major contributions to a vast range of fields, including set theory, <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none;">functional analysis <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none;">quantum mechanics <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none;">ergodic theory <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none;">continuous geometry <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none;">economics <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> and game theory , <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none;">computer science <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none;">numerical analysis <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">, <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; text-decoration: none; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; text-underline: none; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; msobidifontsize: 13.0pt; msobidifontfamily: Helvetica; textunderline: none;">hydrodynamics <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> (of explosions), and statistics , as well as many other mathematical fields. He is generally regarded as one of the foremost mathematicians of the 20th century.”(W) <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Albertus Medium','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">

<span style="font-size: 90%; color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">** He is credited with the idea that programs and data were indistinguishable and could be stored in the same memory unit. His design in which computers work a list of instructions, one at a time,is the basis of conventional digital computing. **

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